Uchiha Sakura - Road to Sarada
by Momiji D
Summary: In a last attempt to save her mother during war, Sarada's mangekyo sent Sakura to the past. Now, a young and weak Sakura has to find a way to go forward and in her own dimension - to go back to her daughter. She just has to stay in character, it will be easy, right ? Slow updates. AU/Time-travel
1. Arc 0 - Introduction

**Disclaimer : I own nothing. Unbetaed. Quotes from the anime. AU/Time-travelling!Sakura**

**Slow updates, maybe one per month.**

* * *

**Arc 0 - ****Introduction**

**_Chapter 1 - Uchihas always fight against fate._**

Sakura watched helplessly as her daughter's distraught face came in front of her. The forty-years-old woman couldn't lift her hands nor move her body.

Her precious daughter, Sarada, was crying in front of her. She watched the tears flowing down from her spinning sharingan - which swirled, twirled and finally switched into a new Mangekyou Sharingan.

"MAMA ! Don't die ! Please !" cried her daughter.

Sakura helplessly watched her baby trying to heal her - but Sarada was no healer. She won't be able to heal her dying mother.

"Sa...ra...da." tried Sakura in her most loving tone.

However, her voice came as a weak whisper, which only made her daughter cry more.

Her poor baby girl.

"'m.. proud..f...ou." stubbornly continued Sakura in her weak voice.

Her seal was drained, her body felt weak, her mind - her strongest tool - coldly acknowledged that she was indeed dying.

Sakura had tried her whole life to be as honest as she could, even if she was a shinobi. She loved deeply and proclaimed her love loudly to her precious people. That's why, even if the world was dying around them, she was going to tell her daughter how much she was proud of her and how much she loved her.

Sarada is her precious daughter, the one she raised, born from Sasuke and Sakura's love. She is the perfect blend of both of them, with Sakura's shape and Sasuke's coloring, with Sakura's heart and Sasuke's drive.

She was Sakura's world.

"Mama, please, don't leave me…"

Why was her body not answering anymore ? She didn't care for her death, as a shinobi she knew she would die young. But, why was nobody coming to help her precious daughter ? Can someone take her baby away from her mother's dying form ?

Sakura tried to smile, to let her treasure know that everything was going to be alright, that her team was going to come, that Sasuke was going to come and save her.

She couldn't.

Instead, her green eyes started to lose focus, spinning her world into darkness - into Death.

Between those moments, she saw her daughter's eyes - a red and black Sharingan, shaped in a weird cherry blossom - spinning again.

Her daughter's scream was the last thing she heard.

* * *

**_Chapter 2 - Uchihas reject Reality when it's not what they want_**

She got up, her heart still racing from that nightmare. Her hands clenched the blankets, she tried to breathe in and out to slow down her poor heart, she could feel her skin soaked in sweat, and her long locks sticking on her face and body.

_Wait, what?_

Sakura got up or at least she tried to. She stumbled out of the bed like a newborn deer. Her body felt weak, weaker than what she was used to.

Her green gaze glanced widely and urgently around her, where was she ?

Long ping locks drenched in sweat followed her head's movement.

This room seemed familiar. However, she wasn't in a hospital. Her hair was too long, how many days has she been here ? Where was _here_ ?

She bit her bottom lip, her eyes found a lamp near the bed. Should she turn on the light ?

She hesitated.

If she was in an enemy camp, they would come and interrogate her. Of course, she would not give any information to her enemies, but she felt weak and cold, a little feverish.

Wait, no, that was because some idiot let the window open - a trapless window - and her body was sweating, a lot.

Sakura sighed and decided to turn on the light.

She blinked a few moments, trying to adjust her eyesight.

She was in a pink doll room with fluffy bedding, a nice pink carpet was on the ground and bright colored furniture were around her.

What the hell.

The room felt familiar, but this did not reassure Sakura. She walked toward the mirror.

_What the heck is going on ?!_

She approached the mirror, her limbs trembling but her haunted eyes focused - and she saw.

She saw the body of a girl, a preteen, in that awkward stage where her forehead looked to big and her body was flat. Her eyes continued to focus on that body dressed in a pink nightgown, that body with weak limbs, a flat stomach - no abs but a shy visible rib cage, and no boobs.

The Sakura in front of her had a small tin face with some leftover baby cheeks. Familiar horrified green eyes, accentuated by dark circles, focused on her large forehead glistening with sweat - her seal was absent.

Sakura collapsed.

She breathed harshly, in and out, in and out.

Her trembling hands, which had no calluses, griped harshly on her long messy pink locks.

"Wh-what's going on ?"

Her hands went to her throat, surprised by the squeakier voice.

**We need to calm down.**

"Inner ?!" gasped Sakura, still trying to get her body to breathe.

**Calm down.**

**In and Out.**

"In and Out." repeated Sakura.

Eventually, she calmed down.

_What the hell is going on, Inner ?_

**Genjutsu ?** Proposed Inner.

Sakura made the familiar hand signs with her trembling hands and her meager chakra.

"Kai."

It didn't work.

**Do you remember… the last thing we saw before coming here…** whispered Inner.

Sakura thought carefully. She sat with crossed legs - her favorite meditation pose - on the cold ground in front of the mirror.

She closed her puffy tired eyes.

She could see it.

She could feel it.

She remembered a darkness, that nothingness - Death.

But, no not just death.

Before that, there was the color of passion, of life, of love - there was red.

Black eyes with a red shaped form, similar to a cherry blossom.

A spinning cherry blossom, painted in red - Sarada's own mangekyo sharingan.

_Where is she ?_

Sakura got up quicker than her body could, her head was still spinning.

She walked toward the window and opened the curtain, the cold wind invited itself in her room, giving her goosebumps. She didn't close the window, the cold wasn't the main problem.

Her horrified eyes watched a familiar street, that she hadn't seen in such a long time.

Her eyes widened.

**You understand ?**

_We were supposed to be dead. Why would we be in our childhood home ?_

**We time-travelled genius.** sassed Inner.

Sakura scowled.

_We don't have the skills to time travel. Besides, to time travel, you need a precise fuinjutsu, and an enormous quantity and quality of chakra._

**Or a Sharingan.**

Sakura's face blanched and her mind processed.

The only way she could have time-travelled was through a Mangekyo Sharingan - something Sarada had achieved by watching her mother dying.

**We had such a close bond with her**. Inner's voice was full of love and guilt.

It was true, Sarada had become her life, her link to the world. Sakura liked her job and loved her friends, she really loved Sasuke-kun, but Sarada was their precious daughter. The one she birthed, the one she watched grow, the one who she trained, the one she teased, the one she loved more than life itself.

**The one we died for.**

Sakura could still feel that bond, within her, within her heart.

_My baby._

Her heart yearned to see her.

_It's hurting inner._

Her mind processed coldly that her baby had activated the Mangekyo. Sarada had managed to push Sakura's dying soul in the past.

Her weak body was not trained to withstand all those information, all those emotions. So Sakura cried, because this weak body couldn't do anything else.

She closed her window, closed her curtains, turned off the lights and fell down on her bed. She used her ridiculous pink heart-shaped pillow to mask her sobs.

_But how did Sarada do that ?_

It wasn't Izanami nor it was Izanagi. It was Sarada's own Mangekyo. Sakura felt guilty, she tried her hardest to protect her daughter and in the end, she was the one to hurt her.

Sakura despaired, she didn't want to be here in this weak body - she didn't want to be here, where Konoha was bright and old. She wanted to be back on the battlefield, with her daughter.

_My Sarada._

Sakura fainted on her tears filled pillow.

* * *

**_Chapter 3 - Uchihas are selfish beings_**

An annoying alarm rang and woke her up. Sakura took it and lurched it against the wall.

The night had been short, her weak body too feverish and her mind overloaded with information.

She got up and walked toward the bathroom, she took a long shower and looked into the bathroom's mirror.

Her green hued eyes turned sad.

Her younger face shared many similitude with Sarada, only the coloring and some details were different. She touched her long wet pink mane, that cotton candy colored hair fell on her face - the same face her baby had gotten.

Sakura didn't like the girl in front of her, this was not her. She looked too young, too innocent.

She opened a cabinet and reached for the scissors. She mechanically cut her hair, in her familiar short locks, with bangs to hide her forehead.

The monotone action of cutting hair let her mind thinks peacefully.

**First, we need to know when we are. What a weird sentence. Then we should change everything.**

Sakura's hands paused.

_From what I've seen through the window yesterday and because of the long hair, we can conclude that we are during our genin era. Before the chunin exam for sure. I disagree with you, if we change anything Sarada won't be born._

**I know that, but are we really going to wait for Kaguya to strike, for Sasuke to come back and fall in love again ?** Inner snorted. **Wake up girl !**

_Why not ?_ coldly stated Sakura. _At least, Sarada will be born._

**Are you or are you not a doctor, Uchiha ? Think.**

Sakura let the scissors fall down.

Even if she let history repeat itself, will her presence change anything ? Can she act exactly how she did before ? Would Sarada ever come back ?

Sure, Sakura would give birth to a baby. But, it wouldn't be her daughter. One, she could give birth to a healthy boy, instead of a girl. And two, even if she gives birth to a daughter, would she be Sarada ?

No it wouldn't be _her _Sarada - he sweet dark-haired girl who wanted to be Hokage.

_Inner, what are we gonna do ? I can't let my baby go ! I know she's alive in our timeline._

**She's my daughter too, you know.**

Sakura felt guilty. That's right Inner was a part of Sakura. Sometimes, she forgot that they were one entity with two personalities, and they hadn't merged yet.

_Maybe we should wait for Sasuke-kun ? Or Sarada ?_

**New plan, we try to be discreet and find a way to go back. Hopefully, Sasuke or Sarada will find us, if not, we'll find our own way, shannaro !**

Sakura blinked.

She took the scissors from the ground, and continued cutting her pink locks.

Inner was right.

Who cared what happened in this universe ?

Sakura will do everything to go back to her friends, her family, and to her daughter.

* * *

**_Chapter 4 - Uchihas care about themselves first_**

Mebuki may have been annoying, but she was still her mother. She didn't understand everything that went on with Sakura and her life. Still, she had been here in the end, and her parents had _tried_ to understand her.

That's why, even if it felt awkward to speak to her dead parents, Sakura tried to stay as warm and natural as possible. She gave a sheepish laugh when her mother saw her new haircut.

"There was a big knot mama. I didn't want to disturb you, so I tried to cut it alone... Besides, I think I look cuter this way, right ?"

Mebuki blinked and gave Sakura a familiar smile, the one she had inherited, the same smile Sarada had.

"Mmh.. You do look more mature." she crossed her arms and raised a hand toward her chin. "But I don't know if it's the haircut…"

Nothing gets past her.

"As long as you're happy, dear." she shrugged. "Come eat, now."

"Yes, mama."

Sakura sat down and nearly choked trying to eat everything - this weak body was starving.

"Sakura-chan… You're eating a lot, today ! I thought you were watching your figure. Be careful dear, a lady's figure is her everything."

**Woah… I forgot those backward views.**

Sakura was also surprised. She had forgotten her family's, and her own ignorance about ninja diet. Something she learned with Tsunade and Shizune. Also, during the end of Kakashi's reign and during Naruto's reign, food was more than something you ate. It was an art, something to be appreciated, the civilians stopped caring about diets, people lived how they wanted and tried may types of food. After Karui and Choji's wedding, many new trade agreements on spices had emerged.

_We'll have to be careful, I forgot many details about the old Konoha._

She stopped eating.

According to the Hokage mountain, she was in the era of the third Hokage. This meant that this village's layout was different from her Konoha, this was before Pain destroyed her old village. Hopefully, she will remember the main roads... What if she got lost ? It would be suspicious and maybe she will be sent to T&I... At least, no one was spying on her, no, wait. What about Roots ? Maybe they were watching every streets in Konoha ?!

**Urgh, those old cows are all alive again, and that old fart Danzo too.**

_Wait a moment ! Itachi and Obito are alive !_

**Yay, more family members, not that we could make a family gathering with them being missing-nins…**

_No, Inner ! It means that Obito's sharingan can time-travel or we can ask Itachi for more information about the Mangekyo !_

**Right, and how are we supposed to find them with this weak body ?**

"Sakura, are you okay ? You stopped eating."

"Ah ! Sorry mama, I'm going to be late for school."

"Wh-"

"Thank you for the meal, see ya !"

"Sakura!"

Sakura hugged her mother and rushed out taking her shoes - she always took her pouch even for breakfast, at least she didn't need to go back to her room.

**Weren't we rude ?**

_Do we care ? Besides, I'll buy her some flowers later to apologize._

**Riiiight. So, what's the plan ?**

Sakura smirked wickedly.

_Become a badass and go back to our daughter, Shannaro !_

"Oye ! Forehead-girl !"

Sakura turned around and instead of her sexy blond best friend, she found a young preteen with a pink face and long blonde hair up in a ponytail. The young Ino gasped when she came near Sakura.

"You cut your hair !"

_Dang it, how are we supposed to explain that ?_

**You could say it's a statement for our unborn daughter ?**

_Inner !_

**Joking !**

"I… felt like it ?"

"Y-you felt like it ?!" screeched Ino.

"Yes, I wanted to change ?" proposed Sakura.

Ino looked flabbergasted.

"Ino ?"

"Wait, since when do you call me Ino again ? Where's the pig ?"

**Abort the mission, mayday, mayday !**

_Shut up !_

Sakura changed her expression to a cockier one.

"D'you want me to call you that, Ino-pig ?"

"FOREHEAD!"

Sakura laughed and started to sprint toward what was supposed to be the road to the academy.

"Catch me pig !"

"I'll show you billboard-brow !"

They both ran toward the academy, laughing brightly although they were rivals. Thank god for Ino, because the roads had changed, she would have been lost without the blond... Her body was getting tired but Sakura continued to follow her younger friend. Hearing her high voice, smelling the old air of this nostalgic Konoha made Sakura feel a little homesick, even if she was in Konoha.

_I just thought about something._

**What ?**

_We didn't lose just Sarada but all the kids… like Inojin._

She arrived in front of the classroom, she couldn't open the door. Was she really ready to face everything ?

"Oy, Sakura ! Open the door, jeez."

Sakura didn't move, she didn't know if she could see Sasuke - Sarada's father.

Ino huffed and opened the door, and pushed gently Sakura inside. The blonde gasped when she saw a free seat near Sasuke.

"YEAH, I'll be sitting next to Sasuke-kun !"

**Sakura !**

The pink haired girl blinked, her eyes focusing on the class. Some of her classmates glanced at her, she had to be more careful.

Sakura's eyes found Sasuke, and she nearly felt her heart stop.

_He's so young !_

Sakura could only watch her husband's younger face, with less dark circles, eyes angry at the world but still with an ounce of innocence.

And that pout was adorable.

Sakura nearly snorted.

In her original childhood, she had found the frown cool and mature. Now, after having seen that same frown on her Sarada, she wanted to pinch his cheeks and put his face into a smiling one.

Her eyes looked at the orange colored boy next to him, Naruto looked so much like Boruto.

**I still think Boruto looked less like an idiot than Naruto. Meh, Must be Hinata's genes.**

Sakura had to pinch her tight to avoid her laugh.

"Forehead, I'm taking the seat next to Sasuke-kun."

Sakura looked at Ino, although she smiled cockily, Sakura could see the hint of worry in her eyes. More classmates were looking at the scene, normally she was supposed to screech something now.

**Stay in character !**

"No way in hell, Ino-pig, that seat is mine."

She stuck out her tongue and walked past Ino to sit down between Naruto and Sasuke. Ino must have been surprised and reassured, because she didn't fight and walked with a huff toward Choji and Shikamaru.

**Since when do we stick out our tongue ?**

_Huh, we didn't do that ?_

She could feel Inner Sakura facepalming.

"MORNING SAKURA-CHAN !"

**Good Lord is he loud !**

"Calm down Naruto ! " she nearly punched him, but stopped herself.

This body was strange, she felt tired and weak after all that running, however her body naturally had the energy to punch the blond. Those were weird reflexes !

"Good morning Naruto, good morning Sasuke-kun."

Naruto was beaming and started to speak quickly and still loudly. Sasuke had not returned her greetings.

* * *

_**Chapter 5 - Uchihas loves deeply**_

So, she hadn't really remembered which day it was until Iruka started to gave them their team composition. Thankfully for Sakura, she put her forehead protector this morning because she couldn't find any headband. Back home, she didn't need to take it, people easily recognized her because of her hair. She still put it on when she left the village for official mission... if she remembered to take it - she had become quite popular in the land of fire.

After learning that she was in Team 7 and during the small break, Sakura decided to go in a room, and think about what she was supposed to do. This world was not a genjutsu, or her own mind, or Sarada's spacetime - like Obito. She was really in the past, but does it mean that it truly was _her _past ? If she modifies anything, would this create an alternate universe.

Everything was confusing. She went to Konoha's Library and took as many books as she could on the subject. Sadly, she couldn't take higher ranked books, and without the Hokage's permission, it meant that she would have to break-in during the night. Oh joy, can this body even run from Anbu ? She would have to think more about the subject.

Knowing that her sensei was Kakashi, Sakura went home to put the books in her room. She went back to the academy and used the window to enter the classroom. She felt Sasuke's glaring eyes on her, but she avoided his gaze. Sakura couldn't look at those dark eyes, it would hurt her too much to see them so close. Naruto chirped near her, and she nodded at everything without really listening. Kakashi came and they followed. She forgot how funny he looked with a hidden eye and after Naruto's prank.

"... my existence !"

Now, she felt weird, she was back with team 7, they were sitting on the academy's training ground and introducing each other.

It made her feel nostalgic.

"Right, Pinky is still on the moon, you go first broody."

Ah. She missed Naruto's introduction. Inner scolded her again about being aware of her surrounding. She sent a silent apology to Naruto and focused back on the introduction.

"... but an ambition. The ambition to restore my clan…"

_Sarada…_

Sakura felt sad again. She missed her girl, the small moments when Sarada scolded Sasuke-kun.

"Hum, hum."

Sakura looked up and saw Kakashi in front of her.

"Eep ! What are you doing ? You're too close, Shannaro !"

"Shan...naro ?" slowly repeated Kakashi.

"EEH, what's that supposed to mean 'ttebayo?" asked Naruto.

Even Sasuke turned around curiously.

**YOU NEVER SAY THAT ! Not at this age ! It's my catchphrase, shannaro.**

_I can't help it !_

Sakura blushed and avoided her teammates eyes.

"Just a catchphrase, sorry."

"Ehh, y'know you're different today Sakura-chan !" said Naruto with his arms crossed in front of him.

**That idiot ! We don't need the Hokage's attention, now look, both Kakashi and Sasuke are going to investigate, shannaro.**

"Ah, I decided to grow up." said Sakura with a large fake-smile and a giggle.

"Mah, just introduce yourself Pinky."

**We're not ready, shannaro !**

"My name is Sakura U-" she faked a cough, "ah, sorry, err, my name is Sakura Haruno. I like many things." She smiled softly thinking of Sarada, Sasuke and her friends.

"And I don't dislike many things, wait, no, actually, I do hate some people."

She thought about all those sickos who hurt children, all the people who hurt her family, her husband, her daughter, Konoha.

" I will end the life of everyone who hurt my friends and my family, and I'll protect the innocents, shannaro !" her hand clenched angrily and her expression turned evil, with her hair slightly rising due to either chakra or the wind.

Kakashi sweat-dropped and had some flashbacks.

Naruto found her great and even Sasuke was surprised by Sakura's protectiveness, he could understand that.

"Riiight." said Kakashi.

Sakura looked at him with honest green eyes, her face scowling.

"You better believe it !"

Naruto actually choked on that one, and Sasuke let out a snort.

"And what about dreams ?"

Sakura's harsh face fell down in a soft expression, her green eyes looked sad but hopeful, her shoulders dropped - she suddenly looked more tired and mature.

"There's someone." she started, her eyes lost in memories.

Sasuke nearly scoffed. But Sakura cut him with a tiny laugh.

**_'Mama… that's pervy'_**

"She's really precious to me…"

**_'Shannaroga !'_**

At that the three boys looked curiously at the pink haired girl lost in her memories.

"I want to hear her laugh and her voice…"

**_'Hehe, tadah ! It's something important, so I picked it up earlier.'_**

She smiled softly, her face was full of nostalgia, but her eyes managed to show proudness.

_**'Mama, you know, I want to be Hokage !'**_

"I want to see her dark eyes again, full of happiness…"

**Sakura**. painfully muttered Inner.

Sakura came back to herself, but still smiled like a proud mom.

"I guess, I just want to see that person happy again and just, well, be with her."

Sasuke didn't know why but her smile was just like his mother.

* * *

_**Chapter 6 - Uchihas are strong and hide their trauma**_

The morning after, Sakura got up early, not because of Kakashi but because she wanted to do her morning routine before going. In the end, she exercised as much as she could and carefully let her chakra turned into healing chakra and circulate around her path.

It did take her a good five minutes to be completely energized, that made her sigh, this exercise only took her a few seconds in her adult body. She brushed quickly her hair and pinned them with her Hitai-ate, her newly made bangs fell softly a few millimeters from her eyes.

She put on her red qipao and frowned at the useless dress, after their trainings she'll do some shopping. Maybe she'll ask Ino to come, or maybe she'll see the differences between this Konoha and her Konoha. Sakura looked in the mirror, she looked exactly like her old preteen self, with a cuter and shorter haircut.

Her pouch had five kunais and some shuriken, that was bad, nowadays, she favored senbons or Kunai. She had no useful weapons, no poison, and even her chakra was small ! It was slightly bigger than a civilian, but compared to Naruto's pool, Sasuke's bucket, hers was the size of a puddle.

**Hey, we still have our brain, and even if our control is not perfect, it's better than the average chunin.**

She sighed and went through her house, searching for something to use as a weapon. Sakura went to the bathroom and found two dental floss of fifty meters, she also took one of her mother's old perfume and bottle of powder.

She went down to get some apples for her teammates and her, and looked at the kitchen knife. She carefully thought about taking it, but decided that no, her mother will need it to make lunch. Instead, she took five pair of silver chopsticks her mother kept for guests.

**Mmh, it does look like longer senbon.**

_It will have to do._

Sakura went out and walked calmly toward the training grounds. She admired the old Konoha and the way it looked so peaceful bathed in the sunrise. The cold air was purer than before, she could feel it, in the way it didn't irritate her skin.

She arrived in her old training ground which was so green with the river glowing under the sunrise, Sasuke was already here, leaning against a tree.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun."

The boy nodded but stayed silent. Sakura sat down next to him with her legs crossed, she knew that he wasn't going to speak, and that Kakashi was going to be late, so she decided to meditate.

Meditation was an activity that she liked to do, she found it fun and it was useful to better her chakra control. She carefully concentrated and made one with inner, who was also sitting down with her legs crossed in Sakura's spiritual world.

**You know, now that we have time before merging fully, we should learn some combinaison technique with the both of us.**

_What do you mean ?_

**Listen. We both know that I'm weird, you gave me to much control. I know that I'm you. But I feel like, sometimes, we're different.**

_You're right. I could always distinguish reality against Genjutsu. But after our merging, nearly no Genjutsu had any effect on me. Like that time, when we went to save Hinata from that Toneri guy…_

**Yeah, the thing is, originally, we found out I could help you during the first chunin exam. You remember ? It was that fight against Ino. After that, we started to merge after you accepted yourself. Also with Sasuke leaving the village, we forgot everything about that, as you focused more about healing and Shishou's taijutsu.**

_We'll have to research that. If we manage to get stronger before joining Sarada, it will be useful on the battleground._

**Shannaro !**

Sakura opened her eyes as she was finished with her meditation. She wasn't alone with Sasuke now, Naruto must have joined them during her meditation.

"Good morning, Naruto."

The blond boy who had been pouting before, grinned happily after she greeted him. Maybe he had greeted her, and she hadn't heard him and made him sad. She felt guilty, she had hurt Naruto again.

"Morning Sakura-chan !"

Kakashi arrived with his one-eye smile.

"YOU'RE LATE !" screamed both Naruto and Sakura.

After Kakashi-sensei gave them every information, and told them to start, Sasuke and Sakura had done what every shinobi should do - they hide. Sakura smiled with nostalgia as Naruto was still in front of Kakashi.

She thought carefully about her next actions. Should she stay hidden and let the scene repeat like the last time ? Or should she fight ? The problem was that if she fought, it would prove that she was strong, but they wouldn't learn that valuable lesson on teamworks.

She decided to let things play out, as they should. Nothing dangerou0s would happen, and she'll give her food to Naruto, like last time.

She watched the fight in front of her eyes, Naruto's bunshin no jutsu wasn't used efficiently, but this time she appreciated her teammate's talent. She can see his potential and his creativity behind his clumsiness.

Then, she watched Sasuke's perfect use of the Katon Jutsu and his taijutsu. He was really brilliant, and watching this scene, she could understand why he thought Sakura and Naruto were annoyances. He was stronger than them, this must be some of the root of his arrogance.

Sakura saw Kakashi disappear and she got up from her hidden spot. He was going to put her in a genjutsu. She told Inner not to do anything, not now at least, she had to fail.

She felt the genjutsu on her, and waited carefully for Sasuke's broken body to come.

She wasn't prepared for Kakashi's genjutsu.

Instead of a young Sasuke's body, she saw her _reality._

She saw the battlefield where she died, she saw shinobis fighting left and right. She saw that scum launching his attack against her daughter - with her long hair in a ponytail, her sharingan turned on, but her body was bruised and twisted. Her eyes quickly analyzed Sarada's injuries - knees broken, hairline fractures along her arms.

And that monster was going to kill her.

"Hell no !"

**Wait ! Sakura !**

She didn't listen to Inner, the enemy was on her baby.

* * *

Kakashi put a genjutsu on the little pink haired girl. Although, she was supposed to be a genjutsu type, she hadn't seen his genjutsu on her. He watched as she made a horrified face, her expressive green eyes were terrified, she rushed toward Sasuke.

"Hell no !"

At least, he was kind enough to put her in a genjutsu so that she could find her teammate. But he wasn't prepared for what she did next.

He felt a surge of her chakra concentrate on her foot, his eye narrowed.

_What was she seeing ? And what was she doing ? _thought the grey-haired jounin.

He watched carefully from his tree as she stomped her foot on the land. Sasuke who had been caught in his headhunter jutsu frowned, and scoffed as the pink haired fangirl stomped on the ground.

Both, Kakashi and Sasuke weren't ready to see the ground around her - a nice radius of twenty meters - moan and collapse against her foot.

_That's the Slug princess move !_ thought Kakashi, his eye widening.

Sasuke who had been on that circle felt the ground groan, felt how that pink haired fangirl with suddenly cold green eyes transformed solid ground into dirt, in one stomp.

* * *

**KAI !**

Sakura blinked, her eyes coming back to reality. What had she done ? She looked with guilt at the broken training ground, and Sasuke's surprised expression. A chunk of ground must have hurt him, because his forehead was bleeding.

"Sasuke-kun !" she rushed toward him and sat on the ground.

"What was that ?" asked the frowning Uchiha, pushing her hand away.

"Nothing." she hissed.

Why was she so moody ?

She sighed and looked at Sasuke with hardened eyes.

"Sorry Sasuke-kun, I hurt you." apologized Sakura, guiltily staring at the blood on his forehead.

She raised her chakra coated hand slowly and put it on his forehead.

"What are you doing ?!" asked the boy.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Healing you." **Duh**. said Sakura and Inner.

Although it was only a scratch - a little too deep, but still a scratch, she had used too much chakra and her control wasn't perfect, so it took her one minute, but she healed the boy.

"There, at least, you won't have a scar."

She got up and gave him her hand.

He didn't take it.

If Sakura had been her younger self, she would have been disappointed and would have let it go. However, she was Uchiha Sakura, instead of crying on it, she rolled her eyes, huffed, and took his hand. She used a tiny amount of chakra to help him up.

An alarm rang.

Their time-limit ended, thank god, because she was near chakra exhaustion. However, she shared a glance with Sasuke. They had failed.

Thankfully, team seven had been formed, exactly like before. However, she could feel Sasuke's eyes on her, while Kakashi-sensei scolded her because she was near chakra exhaustion, the hypocrite.

She carefully glanced at Sasuke and saw Sasuke's eyes. She could read him now, he didn't look cool, his eyes were full of jealousy. He convoited her strength and she recognized that self-deprecation in his eyes, he felt weak, weaker than her - the little girl with pink hair who was playing at kunoichi.

He was always... so harsh with himself. She tried to give him a smile, but it only made him glare more.

_Ah, what should we do ?_

**Do you really want to do something ? He's not our husband.** commented Inner.

_I know. But he's still Sasuke, a version of our husband. You know, I never really understood him at that age. It took me quite a time before I fell for the real Sasuke. Besides, Naruto may be screeching happily, but the teamwork is still lacking._ wisely said Sakura.

**If you're sure, go for it, shannaro !**

"Wait, sensei !"

Sakura stopped Kakashi before he went.

Both him and Sasuke looked annoyed because she interrupted their free time.

_Well, they will just have to live with it, shannaro._

Kakashi still smiled, surely remembering that he was their sensei, and he had to listen to his students problems.

"Yes, Sakura ?"

She put both of her hand in front of her and did her best jutsu, puppy eyes no jutsu, she looked at him with a pout and big green eyes.

"Sensei, can we have another fight against you ?" she amplified the power of her puppy eyes. "As a team, I mean. Please sensei ?"

Kakashi looked lost.

"Mah, maybe another time."

Quickly, Sakura advanced and grope his arm. Her eyes glanced quickly at Sasuke and Naruto, hoping that they caught her plan.

"Pretty please, sensei." asked Sakura.

Naruto also did his puppy eyes no jutsu, and Sakura had to admit that his blue eyes pulled it better than her green one. Personally, she thought that the strongest puppy eyes no jutsu belonged to Sarada - who had inherited Sakura's eyes but with Sasuke's warm black.

"Pleeease sensei, we'll fight as a team, dattebayo !" said the blonde.

"Hn." muttered Sasuke with his cute frowning face.

Kakashi sighed deeply.

**Our win !**

"I guess, I do have some time…"

Naruto and Sakura jumped up and down, Sasuke even smirked.

"Sensei, as we are genin, can you let us ten minutes, to prepare ?"

Kakashi nodded, his face already in his orange book.

Sakura grinned widely, and caught her teammates's hands. They ran a few meters, so that he wouldn't hear them.

"What's the plan Sakura-chan ?" eagerly asked Naruto.

She thought carefully, because even Sasuke was waiting for her plan.

"Okay, Sasuke-kun is the strongest here. He'll engage against Kakashi-sensei." she started.

Sasuke actually preened at her words - preened !

She continued to speak before Naruto cut her.

"Naruto you're the element of surprise. All those years playing pranks, means that you must be talented in subterfuge. Besides, you're better than me at reading Sasuke. I'm pretty sure that with your unpredictability, you can adjust yourself to help him."

Sasuke frowned a bit, doubting Naruto. However, the blonde beamed at Sakura.

"What about you ?" asked Sasuke.

**I'll be drinking a cocktail and watch you fight.**

_Inner !_

**Joking !**

"I'll be your support. That move I pulled earlier drained me." she bit her lips before stating harshly the truth. "I'll be a burden."

"Sakura-chan!" exclaimed Naruto.

"No. Naruto, I really won't be useful if I engage him. However, I can still support you, and if you're injured, I can still heal you."

**Sooo, genjutsu and healing ?**

_Yes. Although, we don't have that much chakra, with our control and minimization, we can last twenty to thirty minutes._

Her teammates nodded, and Sasuke proposed to check what weapon they had. The three of them checked out their pouches.

Sasuke still had many kunai and shuriken, they were looking quite sharp and impressive.

Naruto had three kunai and four shuriken, he also had some smoke bombs and a rope ?

Sasuke and Sakura gave him a questioning glance.

"What ? It's useful, dattebayo !"

Sakura opened her pouch and blushed brightly.

**How could we have forgotten, shannaro ?**

At her face, both Sasuke and Naruto looked closely at what she put down. Five kunai and some shuriken, two dental floss - at that Naruto blinked - perfume and powder, and ten silver chopsticks ?

Sasuke's eyes twitched dangerously. For the first time, Naruto had no words. Blushing more, Sakura tried to defend herself.

"I will buy some new weapons later ! This is still useful, you know !"

Sasuke gave her a sceptical look, that she found normal, however rope-boy was giving her the same look.

**Don't judge us !**

"Aren't you supposed to be a prankster ?" she pointed angrily and shamefully her finger at Naruto. "And, you, aren't you supposed to be a genius ?" she asked Sasuke, before pouting and crossing her arms.

Sasuke's eyes twitched.

" Eeh, Sakura-chan, I don't know what it has to do with pranks, 'ttebayo ?"

Sakura felt a wave of depression on her.

"Explain." said Sasuke, giving her the benefit of the doubt.

Her eyes twinkled, he was so kind.

"Sasuke-kun." she murmured, before shaking her fangirling moment. "I wanted to use the chopsticks as senbon, the dental floss like wires, the powder can be used as some kind of smoke screen, and if I spray enough perfume, he won't be able to smell us ? I mean, we're all sweaty ?" she finished awkwardly.

**When you say it like that, it sounds stupid.**

"Mmh, ya know Sakura-chan, when you say it like that, it's a good idea, dattebayo !"

_At least Naruto is more intelligent than you, shannaro !_

**We're the same person, idiot !**

"Hn, I'll take the dental floss." said Sasuke with his thinking face. "they could be useful with my shuriken, I'll trade you some kunais."

**Achievement locked : Sasuke spoke to us with 20 words.**

Sakura ignored Inner, and exchanged the items with Sasuke. Both of them looked at Naruto, normally he would have cut in - disliking the fact that Sasuke was interacting with Sakura - however, his face was looking seriously at the weapons.

Sakura had only seen him looking this serious during important situations or when he was Hokage, never when he had been a child. Sasuke looked surprised, he must have never seen Naruto serious.

"I'll take the powder and two pairs of chopsticks, 'ttebayo." Then he blinked. "Can I have an apple too ?"

"Sure, the apples were for us actually, I forgot that I had them. Do you want one, Sasuke-kun ?" the Uchiha shaked his head."You can take them all, Naruto."

"Thank you Sakura-chan ! I was still hungry, dattebayo ! In exchange, take this rope." said the happy blond.

He quickly ate the three apples and spat out the seeds.

**MWAHAHAHA !** Laughed Inner.

_What the heck Inner ? I nearly fell down._ scolded Sakura.

**Look Sakura, on the ground !**

Sakura looked and she quickly caught on, she took the apple seeds with her handkerchief - ignoring Sasuke's disgusted look. - and she smirked like the devil.

"Naruto, you will also take the perfume. We'll win." exclaimed brightly Sakura.

* * *

Kakashi waited patiently as his new team planned, he managed to read and savour a few pages of Icha Icha, before they came on him.

"Let's go, dattebayo !" screamed Minato's son.

Sasuke rushed and attacked him with his taijutsu. This scene would have been familiar from earlier, if it wasn't for all the orange clones. The bright color was eye-catching, Sasuke didn't seem unsettled by that many orange, surely because Naruto and him had been classmates.

Kakashi's only eye was attracted easily by the orange. Thankfully, the young Uchiha was dressed in darker garbs, so he tried to concentrate on that. Strangely enough, the boy managed to hit him, more than before.

Kakashi jumped backward. Then he understood. The pink-haired one had put a small, precise genjutsu. He was seeing things from a slightly different angle, so when he barely parried Sasuke, he failed because of his perception.

"Kai."

Now, it had gotten easier.

Suddenly, Naruto threw something on the ground.

_A smoke bomb,_ thought Kakashi while covering his nose.

Then a horrible smell came from the smoke bomb.

"What the…"

This strong chemical odor, perfume ? He opened his eyes and saw and smelled... scented powder ?

He didn't have the time to question the uncommon weapons, because Sasuke had launched many shurikens at him.

"It'll end here !" said Sasuke.

Sakura put another small genjutsu on the weapons as they duplicated. Kakashi, however, easily esquived them all.

"Sasuke-kun, now." said the pink-haired girl.

Kakashi's nose and eye were hurting from the quantity of chemicals, however he saw all the weapons he had avoided coming back at him.

"Wires, I see." commented the sensei.

Sasuke snorted.

"It's dental floss, dattebayo." said Naruto and his four clones as they attacked him.

_What ?_

And without meaning to, Kakashi looked more carefully at the wires, right, it was dental floss.

Sasuke approached with speed, a kunai in his hand, and the other controlling the dental floss.

Naruto's clones attacked him from upside, behind and his two other sides, with kunais and chopsticks ?

"Alright. Since when did Konoha's weapon changed that much ?" dead panned Kakashi.

He used a kawarimi with Sasuke and sprinted at Sakura, who had been behind the dark haired boy.

The girl gave him a terrified expression, and he nearly hesitated. Suddenly the girl grinned and stopped the transformation jutsu, it was Naruto. The blonde launched himself at Kakashi, who should have easily avoided him, decide to let the boy come at him. Sasuke feat the clones where also rushing toward him.

Sasuke launched a Kunai to his left side. At the same moment Sakura, who appeared from the genjutsu she used to hide herself, cut something on the right side.

Suddenly, Kakashi was caught with the clones and Naruto, thanks to the stupid rope.

Then, his nose caught something despite the powder and the perfume in the air. Sasuke was clutching tightly the rope, and Naruto pressed a chopstick on his left side.

"Wait, is that cyanide ?"

"How did you know, sensei ?" asked innocently the pink haired kunoichi.

Cyanide wasn't supposed to be easily accessible to academy students.

"Where did you manage to procure cyanide ?" sternly asked Kakashi.

Some poison were authorized for young academy students, however cyanide was allowed only to chunin or higher ranked shinobi. If she was a Yamanaka, she could get a little slap on her hands and a small fine.

However, Sakura was a civilian-born, and until today, she wasn't officially a genin. The one who selled her that is going to be in trouble. He watched as his student exchanged a glance with the young prodigy.

"Sasuke-kun… do you think, we should reveal, that person's identity?"

Sasuke smirked.

"In exchange of what ?" said the Uchiha

"Children. We'll have to stop the fight, you have to tell me his name." harshly stated Kakashi as he cut down the rope with a kunai. He took the chopstick from Naruto and smelled it closely.

The perfume was really strong, but yes, this was cyanure.

"Sensei."

Kakashi turned toward the pink haired kunoichi.

"Will you give us the bells ? Then, we'll tell you his name."

Kakashi nearly rolled his eye. He may have found a dealer in Konoha, rotting young academy students' carrier, and his pink-haired student 's mind was only on the bells. She needs to sort out her priorities.

Still, he gave them to her, and waited.

Naruto and Sakura fell down on the ground, he worried a few seconds before seeing them laughing. Sasuke also had a smug smirk on his face.

"We succeeded, dattebayo !"

Kakashi opened his mouth to scold the blonde and his teammates, but Sakura interrupted him.

"Sorry sensei, there's no dealer."

He sighed.

"Sakura. What you used was cyanide, it's forbidden to use it wh-"

She cut him again.

"when your rank is lower than a chunin. I know sensei."

"It wasn't poison, dattebayo!" said Naruto, his arms crossed behind his head, a mischievous grin on his foxy face.

"Apple seed." said Sasuke, his hands in his pocket, his proud face was smirking.

"I crushed the apple seeds and coated the juice on the chopsticks sensei." explained gently Sakura. "Because of the perfume and the powder, you were thinking that your sense of smell was, and is still muted. But it isn't. The apple seeds give a small smell of cyanide, sensei. However, because of your analysis of the training ground and your opponents - here, it's freshly graduated students - you thought directly of cyanide."

**And I may have put a small genjutsu on him during two seconds, but, let's keep that secret.**

"Maaan, that was some prank, 'ttebayo !" exclaimed Naruto.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty knackered." said Sakura with a small yawn.

"I see, well, congratulation team 7." said Kakashi, still surprised by this uncommon plan from freshly graduated students.

Sasuke nodded at them, before leaving. Naruto who didn't want Sasuke to be the cool one to live early, quickly followed him.

"See ya tomorrow Sakura-chan, Sensei !"

"Are you okay, sensei ?" shyly asked Sakura.

_So, that's why they say kill 'em with kindness?_ thought Kakashi.

He still smiled warmly.

"Maah, sensei's alright Sakura. I'll see you tomorrow, you should go home, you're bordering on chakra exhaustion." said Kakashi before using a shunshin.

* * *

Sakura blinked a few times, before smiling.

_That was fun._

**Yeah, but we really should lay down, we have enough chakra to go home, shower, eat and sleep.**

And that was exactly what she did, she ate some fruits, took a nice warm shower, brushed her teeth, and her hair. At the end of the day, Sakura let herself fall on her stupid pink beddings and sighed.

It had been quite a tiring day.

At least, all was as good as it could be.

Sasuke felt stronger and had acknowledged Naruto and her. Naruto must have felt that synergy with Sasuke, and he was happy to be with them. Kakashi had been surprised and must be satisfied with their teamwork; she would let him live in peace this week.

Sakura slept with a smile on her face. However, the nightmares still came.

* * *

_**Chapter 7 - Uchihas think about conspiracy theories, question eveything, but are passionate about Konoha propaganda**_

_Kakashi was really a bad sensei._

It had been a few days since she had supposedly time-travelled. Sakura had taken her time to familiarize herself with this old Konoha, where people easily judged, where everything was more traditional.

She hadn't realized how much she had grown since her childhood, Sakura had lost many comrades in wars and battles, she had grown up. Her pink room made her squirm every time she had to go to sleep - it was such a civilian room.

Sarada's room did possess small cute things, but it had been a kunoichi's room, with traps, kunai toys and many books.

Sakura always asked Sarada what type of dress she wanted, and generally asked her opinion on many things. Her baby girl had been quite mature.

**Must be the Uchiha genes, we were quite bratty as child.**

Mebuki wasn't like Sakura. She forced Sakura to buy more qipao and try to be more presentable. The Sakura from before, a preteen fixed on her only love Sasuke, would have listened to her mother.

This Sakura, however, was no pushover. She may be in her flat preteen body, but in her mind she was a grown woman, a frontline medic, the Head Doctor of Konohagakure and a mother. She knew exactly what was good and what wasn't good for her.

Thankfully for the two fiery temper women, her father Kizashi was here to calm them both down. His jokes were still as ridiculous as she remembered. However, Sakura had forgotten, how he was the gentle rain to her mother's fire.

Even if she didn't want to be in the past, she could freely appreciate her time with her parents, Ino and her team.

**Except that Kakashi is an useless teacher.**

Right, except for that.

It had been some weeks since they had been a team, however, Kakashi was always late, gave mysterious advices and trained only the boys.

Every time, they had an exercise to do, he gave vague instructions that Naruto didn't understand and let them train. Sasuke who was quite the genius learned it quickly, Naruto had to try harder and copy what Sasuke was doing to get it. Kakashi always praised Sasuke, and goaded on Naruto until he succeeded.

In the case of Sakura, he always gave a small nod or patted a head to congratulate her, then he used her to goad both Sasuke and Naruto. And that was now. Because, before, Sakura had not been that interested in her training, or there were some things which should be instinctual for ninja that she had never known as a civilian-born.

Kakashi had let all of this slide, she had taken it as a kindness back then. But now, she knows clearly how much he was careless and mostly clueless.

**Yeah, his backstory was as shitty as Naruto's and Sasuke's.**

That's why, Sakura had just sighed and was doing her own exercise, and her own training. Did she care if anyone see her doing Tsunade's technique ? No, she didn't, her goal was more important.

**As long as we're not taken by T&I…**

Anyways, those few months spent with her team were full of useless D-ranks and training exercises focused on teamwork. This showed Sakura how much her sensei was traumatized by what happened with his team. The poor man had lost a lot, and there was no support system in today's Konoha.

**Yeah, because no Badass Pink-haired Medic came up with her idea for kids touched by PTSD yet.**

Sakura smiled a little. That was right, she really had made an impact in her world, even if it was a small one. Sadly, the Sandaime's reign lacked the progressive views and new ideas from Kakashi and Naruto's reign.

_Mmh, maybe we'll help a little before going back to our timeline._

Sakura's plan was not easy to do. The longer phase was the research, she had to find a way to move from an universe to another. If it was going forward in time, it was still doable, hard yes, but doable.

However, since Sakura had arrived, she may have changed many things. Every step she takes was changing the world, she knew it, but she doesn't know the size of the impact. She wasn't anyone important, not yet at least, so she hoped she didn't change too much. However, she was sure she had changed some things.

For example, one week after she came back, she had broken her alarm. It may be only an alarm clock, but normally she kept it until Pain's attack on Konoha. This meant that in this universe, her mother had bought a new alarm clock from a sand trader - making his business successful ; her mama was a trendsetter.

Who knows what it meant for Suna's trade ? Can this impact Sakura's own chunin exams ? She doesn't know.

However, those small changes meant that she wasn't in her past. She was sent back in time, and since then, everything was changing. Sakura had to go back to her own universe, and in the right timeline, and in her own body.

The easiest way would be to ask Obito to send her back. Kakashi-sensei didn't possess the same control over his eye, not yet, and he wasn't of Uchiha blood. Because, she was an Uchiha now, Sakura had done many research to make the life of Sasuke and Sarada easier, especially their health.

She knows that the sharingan worked better with the blood of an Uchiha, who have been genetically made to activate it. Obito's control over his Sharingan must be better than Kakashi-sensei's.

The problem was that she didn't know where was Obito, and she couldn't exactly leave Konoha - not with this weak body.

**Hey, we've gotten stronger !**

Although Sakura was training harder than before, her seal will take some time before coming back. Thankfully they were at peace, well, for now at least. Her body was slowly gaining some muscles, however, she wasn't that strong. Sasuke was stronger and faster than her. Naruto may be clumsy, but his strength and endurance was better than Sakura's.

Her body was still growing and changing, but she was smaller than before. She had to adjust the way she moved, the way she fight, the way she launched weapons. It had been more than three decades since she was a tiny preteen, so sometimes she forgot that she's smaller and weaker.

**Thankfully, our monstrous strength requires chakra control and not just pure taijutsu.**

Sakura in her timeline had an enormous strength which came not only with chakra control, but also with pure taijutsu force. That's why she bought those ingenious weights who looked like bangles, because Sakura didn't know how strong she had gotten.

**We should have taken them off, during our fight. Maybe we would have won.**

Sakura nearly snorted.

_Not really, even our strength would have done nothing against a bolt of lightning. At least, we saved Sarada before being hit by that._

**You know, we really should do something against lightning user, shannaro. Each time, they wound us gravelly.**

"... serious ?! Babysitting is not a mission, it's a stupid, argh !" exclaimed Naruto.

Kakashi stopped Naruto with a knock on his head. Sakura blinked and looked discreetly around the room. Something felt familiar… She didn't know what, however, it was strange to see Iruka-sensei here, she hadn't seen him this young, since, well forever.

"... today's missions are carefully ranked…" spoke the third Hokage.

Sakura nearly snorted. Those liars, she had more miss-ranked missions as a genin than during her chunin years. Somebody was not doing their job correctly, or maybe it was a spy ? From Danzo ?

**Meeh~ Do we have time for conspiracy theories ? Just thinking about the mummy dude makes me cringe. You know Naruto's going to eat some ramen, it's been a long time since we ate some.**

Sakura nodded at both Inner and Naruto. That is, until the Hokage interrupted them. Oups. Wasn't she supposed to listen to the old man ? Whatever, Naruto was arguing.

"... So be it." said the Hokage.

_Wait a minute !_

Sakura's attention was back on the Hokage.

_The Hokage is giving us a C-rank ! Isn't this too early ?_

**No way ! Did we already change the timeline ? I didn't expect to see major impacts now !**

Tazuna entered the room.

Sakura relaxed a bit, she hadn't changed everything. However, it meant that the third Hokage had given them a C-rank three months after the formation of their team. It was too early for young gennins. Sure, Sasuke was at that level, but Naruto and her weren't. The blonde boy may be determined, but she knows that as the seventh Hokage, he would have refused to give such a mission to such a team.

_Whatever the sandaime thought was wrong. He was too sentimental in his old age ! No one should have given team 7 a C-rank._

**Sakura, calm down. You're thinking about it in the wrong way. Yes, this mission is a miss-ranked mission, and it should have been A-ranked in the end. However, the Hokage doesn't have that information.**

_No Inner ! Kakashi-sensei may have focused on training our teamwork but our individual skills were, and are lacking. Besides, even our teamwork needs better work. Sasuke is still thinking of Naruto and me as burdens. Naruto doesn't know what awaits us, and he's too obvious to real danger. Heck, Kakashi-sensei is projecting his old team on us ! I'm pretty sure, he's comparing himself with Sasuke, Obito with Naruto, and Rin with me. Especially, when he saw us reading those medical scrolls !_

**Okay, but calm down ! You are stronger than before, and you know what awaits us. We'll just have to take care of Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi. You can't refuse this mission.**

_And why couldn't I ?_ thought coldly Sakura.

**Because,** and Inner stressed out that word**, we can't let Tazuna die. Don't forget that this mission is what made him come to Konoha to help us out after Pain's attack. Secondly, what do you think will happen if you refuse a mission from the Hokage ?** Inner's voice was as cold as Sakura. **The third won't trust us, Kakashi will still treat us as a weak girl, and more importantly, the boys will be mad at us. Have you forgotten ? They are not our Naruto or our Sasuke, they aren't mature. They both want to get stronger, for Sasuke to avenge his death family, and for Naruto to be acknowledge by everyone.**

_If I refuse, I'll be an hindrance… Okay, let's do this, but I want it planned to a T._ finished Sakura.

"Sakura-chan, don't worry, I'll protect you, dattebayo !" said Naruto with a bright smile.

Aaaand, everyone's eyes were on her, again. She was failing to be discreet, at least they thought it was because she was afraid, and not because she was a spy.

She smiled warmly at Naruto and her team, surprising Iruka who thought she would hit the poor blonde.

"I'll protect you too, guys."

She turned toward the client and gave a formal bow.

"Don't worry sir, as shinobi from Konohagakure, we'll do everything to protect you successfully." said Sakura in her most confident voice.

**Here it is, our Konoha propaganda. Ah, I love it.**

The Sandaime must have thought the same because he was also smiling.

* * *

**\- To be continued**

**AN: I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

**To clarify some things about t****his story : it's not about Sakura time travelling to make things right or to save the world. In this story, Sakura was forcefully sent to the past by Sarada's sharingan, and Sakura's goal is to go back to her timeline.**

**Yes, there are many things she could change, many peoples she should save. However, she's not Naruto or Sasuke, Sakura is happy with her life. She accomplished many things, she grew to be someone better, she has a nice job and a good life for a shinobi. The only thing she wants is Sarada's happiness.**

**The focus point of this story will be her inner conflicts - how is she going to go back ? Should she care for this world ? Knowing that it's an alternate universe and not her home, however Sakura always cared about people... What is she going to do ?**


	2. Arc 1 - Through the Wave

**Disclaimer : I own nothing.**

**About this story : I will try to not overpower Sakura, at this age she's skilled but still weak and her goal isn't to be the best and enjoy life. Her goal is to advance until she meets Obito or at least Itachi. They are the only Uchiha with the mangekyo and they could potentially help her.**

**Summary of the Previous Arc : **During a battle, Sakura was grievly wounded and slowly dying. Sarada's Mangekyo Sharingan activated and managed to forcefully send Sakura in the past. The mother doesn't want to be in the past, where she was too useless, too weak and without her daughter, her husband and her friends. The kunoichi's goal is to return to her daughter, sadly for her she's too lost in this unfamiliar Konoha, she has to stay discreet and hopefully go back to her timeline. Sadly, she doesn't have the time to continue her research because Team 7 is sent to the Land of Wave.

**Previously on Road to Sarada :**

"_The Hokage is giving us a C-rank ! Isn't this too early ? -Sakura _

**_You can't refuse this mission. - Inner_**

_And why couldn't I ? thought coldly Sakura._

**_Because, we can't let Tazuna die. Don't forget that this mission is what made him come to Konoha to help us out after Pain's attack._**

She turned toward the client and gave a formal bow.

"Don't worry sir, as shinobi from Konohagakure, we'll do everything to protect you successfully." said Sakura in her most confident voice.

**_Here it is, our Konoha propaganda. Ah, I love it._**

The Sandaime must have thought the same because he was also smiling."

**Hope you enjoy this !**

* * *

**Arc 1 - Finding Yourself Through The Wave**

* * *

**_Chapter 8 - Uchihas endure... until a breaking point_**

* * *

It was strange to be the protected one, again.

Since Sakura became an adult - a real grown-up after the war, she needed no protector. Everybody had acknowledged her capacities - her strength, her healing abilities.

Everyone in her generation became adults, parents, protectors of the new generation - heck, even Shino decided to be a teacher. They were the ones who protected Konoha ; they were The Protectors. After the war, they had felt lost, they tried to repair, to do better, they thought they had grown. However, what really made her generation - the rookie 9 grow - was the younger generation ; parenthood had changed them. Sasuke trusted her to maintain their household, to keep Sarada safe.

Now, she was back in a lesser skilled body. The situation was so troublesome.

She begrudgingly acknowledged that she was better than her past self. Those few months after The Incident had been useful, she spent her time training harder and combined it with a strict regime for growing kunoichi. Team training had never helped Sakura in _learning _new things ; no team training was exactly what it had been in her past life - Team 7 had to work together and combine their skills.

They mostly did D-rank mission, however Sakura did not complain.

Hindsight was twenty-twenty, with her _new _knowledge, Sakura can truthfully admit that those D-ranks missions were useful for her team's growth, it helped them in working together, and a successful mission increased Team 7's reputation. The most important use of those missions was the money ; Sakura wasn't poor, but her teammates had to live, they needed to eat, and Naruto had a rent to pay.

It was embarrassing to know that she had never known that one of her close friend had to pay a rent. When she learned that, she felt so much guilt in her depth. At least she was trying to be stronger and better for her team... and mostly her problem. However, her social life wasn't that great, she can't speak to anyone about her problem, she was alone.

**Hey !**

_Sorry, but you know what I mean... I can't even look at them ! You remember last week, when Ino spoke to us about the new dress in Sumiko's shop ?_

That incident had been awful. Sakura may have a good memory, but Sumiko's shop stopped existing with the seamstress's death during the chunin exam - she never went back there. How was she supposed to recall so many details when it wasn't as important as each bone, each muscle, each tenketsu in a human body ?

Sakura tried her hardest to avoid social interaction, everyone was either dead in her future or too _young _to understand her. She doesn't even know how to treat her team ! Her change in behavior was too sudden for Naruto, he looked at her weirdly when she tried to compliment or encourage him. Sasuke gave her glares full of suspicion each time she tried to help them. And Kakashi's eye was full of worry each time she trained her hardest.

At least avoiding social interactions gave her more time to go to Konoha's library, even if she didn't have a clearance for many books. She did manage to learn new Handseals for various jutsu, however with her chakra level, they weren't going to be useful in her near future. Sakura had found no interesting information to help her travel back to _her _future. Maybe, if she had a Jounin clearance... No. She wasn't at the level to steal from ANBU.

She had so many plans but she can't do any of them because it was risked to fail. She trusted nobody here; the informations she had were too precious and too dangerous. What could happen if Orochimaru or the Akatsuki found out abour her Knowledges ? The world would be in danger... The only thing she could do was train alone, when no one was watching and try her hardest to become stronger.

Her new conditionning helped her in reaching who she was supposed to be at a faster pace than originally. The stronger she gets, the better it will be - this was the best approach to go back home. It will help her survive until she met someone who can help her. ; her training may give her an edge to surprise Itachi or Obito, and they may listen to her story and help her. She was no Naruto when it cames to speeches, but her fists would have to do.

**If they don't help us, I'm sure we can use the edo-tensei jutsu and ask another Uchiha.**

Sakura ignored Inner and focused on the new problem in front of her.

This morning, team 7 left for their first mission out of the village. The first few hours had been peaceful, until the demon brothers appeared. Sakura put herself in front of Tazuna exactly like before.

She doesn't understand why her team always questioned her strength. Sasuke, Naruto, and even Kakashi tried to protect her or cover for her, instead of focusing on the job.

**Maybe, it's the pink hair ?**

Naruto seems to think she was some sort of princess, he did compliment her but she knows that deep down, he hadn't acknowledged her as a shinobi. It wasn't his fault, it was the way he had been shaped by their society - she had forgotten how kunoichi were treated in this era.

In her time, her future, Sarada didn't have Kunoichi classes. The school system changed during Kakashi's reign, everyone was required to learn basic codes, or basic herbology. The courses were optional, but recommended - strongly recommended to everyone, even the boys. The words Kunoichi and shinobi had been blurred through the years - in the end the new generation was composed of ninjas.

However, here, at the present time - in her _past_ \- it was different.

Kunoichi and Shinobi are both ninja, however Kunoichi weren't as respected as they will be in the future. Some people could be quite sexist in this era. Kunoichi were mostly sent on seduction missions, or infiltration, because civilians didn't expect a woman to be as strong or even stronger than a man. Before the Warring States Era, the term Kunochi hadn't existed. It was during those dark times that women decided to also learn how to fight like shinobi, what they lacked in strenght, they made up through cunning mind.

It was because of those rare women - mostly from clan - that the word Kunoichi existed, that it meant _something_. Some Kunoichi, such as Senju Touka, were exceptional and showed that a woman could be as strong as a shinobi. Thanks to them, Konohagakure started to support women who wanted to become shinobi. Since then, the percentage of Kunoichi grew each year, but the actual number of Kunochi wasn't as high as shinobi.

She doesn't want to bash her village, she understands that Konoha supports teamwork and that the number of Kunochi wasn't enough, however she _knows now _that putting a kunoichi per team wasn't done because the Hokage had no choice. No, the Sandaime and his council only saw women as a support, something that Koharu Utatane-sama despised but couldn't talk about, until Tsunade took over.

**Yeah, and even then, she didn't have the time to do much about it...**

_Yes, but that was because of the Akatsuki, she made many changes, our shishou. _Thought Sakura with nostalgy

**That she did, shannaro !**

_She implemented a better care system for the village, she unrooted Danzo from Konoha's system, she acted against the council and battled the Akatsuki. She let us, her shinobi, grow and gave us many freedom. _The more she thought abouth it, the more she wanted to smile.

**If she was here, she would punch Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke toward the moon ! **

_Inner..._ whispered mentally Sakura as she glanced thoughtfully at her team and the way they behaved with her.

It wasn't that her teammates were misogynistic, no, it was just how their culture influenced them. Kakashi-sensei had seen his comrade Rin die in front of him, the man avoided the hospital like the plague. Of course, he would compare Sakura with Rin. Both were innocent and medic-nin in his eyes. She was pretty sure, he did the same comparaison in her timeline.

For Naruto and Sasuke, it was a little different. They were both orphans, their only interactions with the opposite gender was at the academy - fangirls - or in the village - civilians and weaker kunoichi.

Konoha may not be as big as it will be in the future, however, it was still an enormous village. Naruto - who avoided the glares of the villagers - and Sasuke - who avoided the pitying glances of the villagers - weren't used to stronger Kunoichi, like Anko, Kurenai, Shizune or Tsunade-shishou.

This young Naruto doesn't know how strong Uzumaki Kushina had been. And her poor Sasuke-kun had been too young to know that his mother wasn't just a housewife, but a strong jounin of Konoha.

Sakura grimaced.

_I can't let them live in their ignorance._

They needed to know that a woman can be strong too. She may have shown her strength to her team, but they were still protecting her and they did not trust her, not yet.

She won't lie, she was hurt by their behavior.

She had always thought that if she had been stronger before, Naruto and Sasuke would have trusted her to watch their backs, to be their teammate.

Now, she understood that it hadn't changed anything.

During the fight against the two demons - Inner snorted at that nicknames - she had jumped with confidence in front of Tazuna. She was sure, that this time Sasuke would let her protect Tazuna.

However, he had jumped between her and the enemy. Again. Exactly like before… he was lucky she didn't hit him with her kunai, he could have been hurt, by her hands. She gave him an annoyed glance after the fight but didn't comment, after all they were out of Konoha, and working on their mission.

**Personally, I'm touched that he jumped in front of us this morning. He loves us, shannaro !**

She had healed Naruto's hand after his speech about working harder, yadda, yadda. She tried to give him a proud smile, but it came more as a grimace, thankfully no one had seen how hurt she was by their lack of trust. Still, Sakura was a shinobi, and she knows how to _endure_. That's why, she put back a smile on her tired face and silently followed her team.

Team 7 and Tazuna continued on their path, until they met Zabuza.

Everything happened like before.

_I should be happy about that._

She clenched her fists, trying to think postively - they were still alive and her teammates weren't hurt (excepted her).

Everything happened like _**before** _and that really hurt her.

Kakashi had been imprisoned in Zabuza's jutsu, Naruto came up with the _same_ _plan_ as last time… The exact plan he came up with in her original timeline.

**Let me punch them ! Shannaro ! We'll show them our strength !**

Naruto's plan was the same plan as before, and he asked Sasuke to back him up.

Just Sasuke.

They didn't ask Sakura, but she had shown them her capacities, hadn't she ? So they _know_ that she's strong, she can literally turn earth to dirt with her hands, so why hadn't they told her to do something during the fight. Naruto didn't put her on the plan, Sasuke sent annoying glances her way - knowing that she can easily read his eyes - she understood that he told her to stay put, in the background.

Her mind coldly understood what it meant - On an instinct level, her teammates didn't trust her to have their back.

It had been a long time since she had felt _this_ type of hurt.

**You're strong, you're great, it will take us time again - but remember who we are, who we'll be.**

Sakura clenched her teeth behind firmer lips.

All those times, when she had been disappointed in herself for not being strong enough... All those years of feeling inadequate… And now, she was learning that even if she was stronger, kinder, and generally _better_, it changed nothing ?

Kakashi still favored Sasuke and sometimes Naruto. Naruto and Sasuke both ignored her, and thought only about their stupid rivalry.

She had really believed that they would be closer.

She let Sasuke have his space, she stopped fangirling. She spent more time with Naruto and treated him like a friend, even a brother. Heck, she didn't even criticize Kakashi for ignoring her training.

But, nothing had changed.

**I am disappointed in humanity.**

Sakura was no child.

Not anymore.

She was an adult, a _responsible_ medic who had been (who _was_) a mother, and more importantly, she was a _shinobi_.

That's why, she didn't scream, she didn't cry; instead, Sakura continued to _endure._

She healed Kakashi during the morning, and spent the rest of the day protecting Tazuna. Naruto and Sasuke hadn't listened to her when she said that they should protect Tsunami, Tazuna and Inari. They told her that Zabuza was dead, and they should be training instead of waiting uselessly.

She watched them go out, bickering about training.

Again, she had been left behind.

She had never really understood how much that first fight against Zabuza had impacted the boys' teamwork. It had been the first time that they truly combined their techniques against a powerful enemy - it was the first time they had behaved like a team.

Of course, because Sakura hadn't been a part of the plan - not that they included her - she was different. For them, she couldn't understand them.

She had never felt so frustrated in her life.

What was more complicated was that she understood what was happening around her. However the boys were still young, they didn't understand the psychological effect they had on her.

**You know, the truth is that when Sasuke and Naruto are together, nothing else matters.**

_Inner, don't say that. They care about Team 7, in fact Naruto is the one who cares the most about Team 7. The both of them are young, but when they'll grow up, they will be more mature, they will care about the kids, and Hinata, and well me, I guess._

**Please Outer. I may have been merged with you in the future, but I know how alone we felt after the war.**

Sakura frowned.

It was true.

Sasuke had left her again, leaving her only with a promise. Naruto had officially started to date Hinata, he married her, and became a Hokage. Kakashi became the Hokage and just enjoyed life after his retirement.

Sakura started her medical project and didn't have time to socialize. (It seems that she never does...)The only one who spent time with her was Ino, and that was because Ino always forced her presence in Sakura's life - even if she had Sai. She was her bestfriend.

Sakura focused fully on her carrier and she had met no one new, everyone else seemed so bland compared to her comrades. Civilians had known war, but they hadn't fully _known_ her war - a shinobi's war.

War had _changed_ Sakura, more than many shinobi.

Instead of dating, she worked to the bones and hang out with the girls or Naruto when she had time.

Until Sasuke came back again.

He made her feel young again, and he understood her better than many peoples. He broke her tiring routine.

It just felt right to be with him, to start a family with him, she never regretted it.

That was because of Sarada - their daughter brought them closer, it had felt more right. Their family had been her tiny peace.

After Sasuke had left, Sakura's life turned back to what it was, she hanged out less with the girls: they all were busy with their own kids. However, after work, she had Sarada - who she had raised, who she had given every bit of love and attention.

She wasn't the perfect mother - she was a workaholic at heart and the hospital needed her. However, she never ignored Sarada. She always tried to teach everything she could to her daughter. As she grew, Sakura saw her less, but their bond was as strong, and even stronger.

_I miss her._

Her kind daughter was as understanding as Sakura, but she was as honest and blunt as Sasuke. She kindly scolded Sasuke and Sakura many times. She was her greatest treasure, she made her so proud.

**She is our treasure. Now, stop worrying about team 7 and their douche behavior. What are we going to do ?**

Sakura blinked.

That's right, after Kakashi had woken up, he kindly announced to the idiots that, yes, Zabuza was still alive and he may have an accomplice.

**Dun, dun, duuuuun.**

She was unable to stop her body from sending them that 'I told you so!' look, which Kakashi saw. He asked what happened, so Sakura told him that she was learning to use senbons, and how they could put someone in a false-death. She told him truthfully, without gloating, that she tried explaining that particular information to the boys but that they hadn't believed her.

Kakashi had patted her head and calmly scolded Naruto and Sasuke for doubting their teammate. She had been satisfied.

One hour later, she was left with disappointment, again.

Kakashi taught them how to tree walk, and after seeing her exploit, he did the same thing as before.

Sakura had jumped down and asked him what she could do after to train - something she had never asked in her original timeline - however, her sensei gave her the same order as before, to guard Tazuna.

_I want to go home._

**I feel you, girl. However, guarding Tazuna is important, right ?**

Sakura snorted.

_Please Inner. One, we both know that Zabuza and Haku will come in five days._

**Are you sure ?**

_Inner. Since we came here, nothing changed. We aren't important and we made no impact. If it was Naruto or Sasuke, I'm sure they would have changed something, without meaning too…_

**Hey, that doesn't mean that we aren't important ! You need to love ourself ! We aren't the lightning or the wind. We are like the trees, the more we grow, the stronger we get.**

Sakura grinned.

_That was sooo cheesy !_

**I'm you, shannaro ! You're cheesy too.**

Sakura laughed.

**By the way what's the second reason that makes you think guarding Tazuna isn't important ?**

_Inner. Kakashi may have given us that command, but we are a genin in his eyes. Do you really think he would let his little kunoichi, a young genin with no experience, guard Tazuna against Zabuza and an accomplice ?_

**I am sooo disappointed.**

Sakura sweat dropped. She approached Tazuna and told him she would watch over him and his guys. He gave her _that_ look, the one which clearly said that he didn't believe how a pink-haired pipsqueak would protect and save him.

She sat down and watched them work.

**Maybe we could work out ? We can lift those heavy things ?**

She sighed and got up. At least it was a creative way to train.

**Wait ! Don't use chakra. We need to get back our true strength.**

Sakura told Tazuna that she was going to help them, and as she worked hard without chakra - just like a civi, maybe that's why they became more open with her.

"So, Sakura, is your clan important ?" asked Furuichi.

"Oy, don't ask about her clan, you know how ninja gets with their secrets." scolded Tazuna.

"What do you mean ?" asked Sakura, wiping sweat from her forehead.

"Well, shinobi all keep their clan's secrets safer than their villages, right girly?" said Tsubaki.

"Yeah, that's right but not all shinobi come from clans." informed Sakura.

Everyone laughed around her, but after seeing her frowning face they stopped.

"Wait are you serious ? Of course, shinobis comes from clans ! Where else could they come from, girly ?" asked Tsubaki.

"Not really." started Sakura. "If a civilian has high enough chakra, he can start to train to become a shinobi. Of course, there are more difficulties in our path. For example, a clan kid's genetic pool make his chakra more attuned to his clan's specialities. However, a civilian with high chakra has the potential to be a shinobi."

Furuichi snorted.

"Please, girl, have you ever seen a ninja without a clan ?" asked the builder.

**Is he seriously asking this to us?**

"Yeah, me." told Sakura.

At that, they all looked at her differently.

"Are you an orphan?" asked kindly Tazuna.

"No, I live with both of my parents." confusedly said Sakura.

"Are they ninjas ?" proposed Bui.

"No, papa and mama work in trades. They're both civilians, I know that papa nearly became a genin and mama also went to the academy during one or two years, but quit."

"So why are you a shinobi ?" questioned Tsubaki.

"To protect my village, my family and my friends." said Sakura.

**Oh, you're such a good little Kunoichi from Konoha.** teased Inner.

The conversation ended after that, she could see that the men still had some questions, but decided not to ask. Sakura was surprised that people thought shinobi came only from clans. But, she guessed that nobody actually asked from where comes shinobi. She couldn't imagine a world without chakra… that would be too weird, how would people live ?

She walked home with Tazuna and helped Tsunami cook. They all sat down and ate.

She watched as both Naruto and Sasuke were carefully eating every food on the table. Walking through the streets made her remember the poverty of the Land of wave, and those two doofus were gobbling everything because of their rivalry.

She sent a desperate glance at her sensei, however Kakashi was letting them do as they please, and was reading his stupid book.

Something broke inside her.

Her patience had finally reached its end.

"That's it."

She got up and punched both Naruto and Sasuke on their head. They both fell down hard on the ground; the chairs making a small dent on the floor. Kakashi's eye met her glaring green eyes and her rising pink locks, she doesn't really know how she looked, but sensei flinched.

"Hn." said Sasuke with a scowl.

"Hell no!" said Sakura. Her green eyes glowing darkly at idiot number 1. "No. I listened to both of your idiocy for too long."

**You go girl ! Show them, the strength of a modern woman !**

"Do you both realize that we are actually on a mission right now ?"

"Sakura-chan, what does it have to do ? I need to eat to train and be strong, dattebayo!" said Naruto in his honest and innocent tone.

Inari opened his mouth, surely to do some drama, but Sakura glared at the kid before he spoke.

"I don't care. Sensei ! Why are you not saying anything ?" asked Sakura.

"Err, Sakura. I don't know what is the problem." said Kakashi.

**He did not say that, did he ? The end, we've reached the end… Adios team 7, it was nice to meet you.**

"Tsunami-san, Tazuna-san. I think Inari forgot something in the garden." coldly stated Sakura.

Tsunami the wise woman, only nodded, and took both the hand of her confused son and the hand of her perplexed father - she ran out of the house.

"Hn. What's the meaning of this ?" growled Sasuke, his face scowling.

Sakura looked at the three at them. One. By. One. Her face which had been red before, looked blank now, her eyes were coldly judging them.

"It seems that you all think you're some kind of geniuses. So, I will ask some questions as the weak little pink-haired girl _playing_ kunoichi." hissed Sakura. "Where are we ?"

The three blinked, all thinking that Sakura had finally lost it.

"In the Land of Wave, dattebayo !" answered boldly Naruto.

**He was always the courageous one,** commented Inner.

"Very good. Now, can you tell me what's our actual situation ?"

Naruto looked confused, and Sasuke didn't understand her question.

"Mah, maybe we do need to speak about this." Kakashi had finally closed his book, understanding what Sakura was doing. "Sasuke, what's the political and economic situation in Wave ?"

"What does it have to with the mission ?" angrily asked Sasuke.

**I don't have the patience. If Kakashi wanted to teach them, he should have done it earlier, we don't have time Sakura. Our body needs to sleep, and you need to meditate before going to sleep.**

"For a genius, you're stupid." said Sakura, with her know-it-all voice. "Gato possess every tradeline in this goddamn country, this means that he has a monopoly over everything." Her green gaze left Sasuke and focused on Naruto as he opened his mouth. "To explain it clearly Naruto, your 150 yens ramen, here can cost 1500 if he wants ! Money represents power in such a land, where nearly no one knows what is chakra. Because Gato has this economic power, the villagers in wave are living in poverty." she crossed her hands and cocked her head. "Children can go without food for so long, people are fighting over each other, augmenting prices, to be able to survive." continued Sakura. "I know both of you want to be the heroes and fight Zabuza, protect everyone."

"Sakura." Kakashi scolded her.

"No. They aren't babies, they don't need to be smothered." said Sakura harshly. "Listen guys, we aren't heroes, we aren't samurai, we are shinobi. And, our job is to protect Tazuna so he can build a bridge. This bridge is a danger for Gato because it means that Wave will be able to trade easier with other countries. It's their hope to save their village, to save their lives, to protect their family, to finally live instead of surviving."

Naruto looked pretty hyped after her speech, his eyes twinkling with understanding. He was not stupid, if you explained it to him clearly, Naruto would understand.

Sasuke was different, because his goal was to get stronger and to avenge his family; he never took the time to analyze everything. Thanks to Kakashi's teaching and maybe Orochimaru's, his analytical skills had gotten better. For now, his skills were only used during fight. However, deep down, she knew that he was a big softy when it comes to innocent kids and family.

**You know, you've gotten better at the giving speeches thing, it could work on Obito or Itachi.**

_Not now Inner._

"But, Sakura-chan, what does it have to do with the rice ? We can always pay them back ?" asked Naruto.

"Dobe. Even if we give them money, they may not have rice in the shops. And she doesn't want us to eat everything." said Sasuke while rolling his eyes.

She bit her bottom lip.

"Not only that." murmured the girl.

"Hn?"

"Guys. As I told you, we are shinobi. We can't expect people to give us a room, we could have been camping. " she continued in a softer tone. "Do you remember, what they taught us at the academy ? It's our job to find provisions. Civilians don't eat as much as us… Besides, the lack of resources is our fault."

"EEH ! Why, 'ttebayo ?"

"Because we accepted the mission. We should have anticipated how much we would need. I know Tazuna lied to us about the mission. However, we still decided to continue, so normally, every action we took afterwards are our fault and our responsibility." she decided that she should give them further details, they will think she's a know-it-all, but at least they'll be informed. "You know, sometimes when an inn accepts to accommodate us when we don't have money, it's because the Kage pays them back." That she learned under Tsunade.

"Really ?" asked Naruto excited to have more information.

"Yes really. Also, Jounin, like Kakashi-sensei, have the right to continue the mission because they can assess if it will be a future advantage for our Konoha."

She saw Kakashi's eye narrow at that information, if he asks how she knows that, she will lie.

"What advantage, dattebayo ?"

She smiled at the curious blonde, and mentally cursed every teacher who hadn't let the boy bloom.

"If the bridge is finished, it will mean that Konoha can ask for a trade discount with Wave, plus our relationship will be better. Also, it can be a nice strategic emplacement if we ever have a war with a neighboring country. If you're interested Naruto, I can give you a book about it ?"

"Books !" pouted Naruto.

She crossed her arms and sighed.

"Fine, I'll give you my notes on the subject."

"We didn't study that in the academy." accused Sasuke.

**What does he suspect us of ? Okay, what the heck is his problem, how come Healing jutsus and strength enhancement are considered normal, but reading is weird ?**

"They were interesting !" strongly argued Sakura.

Naruto's eyes twinkled mischievously.

"Sakura-chan, are you a bookworm?"

"She's a fangirl dobe." said Sasuke.

"What's wrong with the both of you ? Being a fangirl doesn't mean I don't like to read."

Sakura blushed.

_Did they both think I spent all my time on Sasuke ? Okay, I did spend a lot of time on him. But, books will always be my friends._

**I suddenly feel sad for ourselves...**

"Ah ! Sakura-chan is a bookworm, Dattebayo !" said Naruto, pointing his index on her.

"There's nothing wrong with books, shannaro ! Sensei tell him!" Sakura turned toward Kakashi with her face flushed a brilliant pink.

Kakashi did his one-eye smile.

"There's nothing wrong with Sakura liking books. And, if I remember correctly Sakura, here, attained a nice 125/100 on her written exam."

"What." said Sasuke, he scowled trying to remember the exam.

**He must have thought we had one-hundred on the exam like him.**

_No, no. I'm pretty sure, he never thought of us at that age._

**Sakura, would you please stop making that depression boulder that I am carrying grow ?**

"Wow, Sakura-chan, I knew you were smart, but I didn't know you were that smart, 'ttebayo!" said Naruto.

"Ah, thank you." shyly said Sakura.

* * *

_**Chapter 9 - Uchihas are discreet but proud beings**_

* * *

According to her original time-line, she supposedly had four or five days before the attack. Sasuke and Naruto were still training with Kakashi, and nobody thought it was weird to let a genin protect the bridge builder (and his crew) alone.

**Kakashi knows we're safe. We should have asked him to give us more training... Yesterday's conversation was useless.**

Sakura disagreed with inner. She believed in Kakashi-sensei, maybe he was still Rin in her ; which was weird to be honest because from what she heard that girl was a saint. Inner, unlike Sakura, didn't easily excused other people's behavior toward Sakura.

Of course, Inner Sakura and her were the same person in the end, weren't they ? But Inner was born because of Sakura's dissociation with herself, Sakura always excused people's, she accepted their flaws, because _she _was a flawed person. Inner protected Sakura, she was useful, however some part of her came from Sakura's harsher personality. Inner Sakura questioned everything, she was blunt, she criticized the intention of everyone around Sakura. Inner was the true kunoichi inside of Sakura, she could be cold and she hated to see Sakura hurt.

Sakura was the filter. She was the medic, she represents control, and she cared. Although she tried to concentrate on Sarada, she can't help but care for this young Sasuke and this young Naruto, and this broken Kakashi-sensei. Maybe that's why Inner was back. If she had been alone, she would have started to care, and in the end, she would have stayed. However, with Inner by her side, Sakura knows that even if she started to care, Inner won't let her forget Sarada.

**What do we do ? I'm bored, we even managed to put more chakra in our seal.**

The answer to that question appeared a few seconds later, when the rope tightening some wooden column fell on Tsubaki, one of the bridge builders.

"Tsubaki !" shouted Furuichi.

Sakura quickly ran toward the builders.

"Shit! We have to amputate his fingers, and bandage his hand and arm." said Tazuna as he assessed his colleagues' wound.

Sakura pushed around the other builders and managed to reach Tsubaki.

"Let me see."

She crouched and carefully looked at the wound, his right arm and hand were broken, however his fingers - now tinted in a mix of blue and purple - were crushed. She ripped off his sleeve and the clothes on his shoulder - as she had predicted an enormous hematoma was here.

"Tsubaki-san." started Sakura in her professional tone. "I need you to relax your arm and shoulder. I am a healer, don't worry."

She gave him a small professional smile and she got back to his wounded arm. A few hand seals later, and her medical chakra appeared on her hands. Her chakra control had gotten better and now she had the same control level as before Naruto's departure with Jiraiya. The process took fifteen minutes but his arm and shoulder were fine.

"Your hand will be okay too, I repaired your crushed fingers but they will still need time to heal completely. Try not to use this hand for at least two weeks." She got up. "I gave you a small check-up and you have no trauma, do not hesitate to drink black tea with ginger root, if you have that in your home..." Right, with wave's economic situation, there's wasn't It will help you calm down. I will try to find some herbs and see if I can make a balm to ease your pain. Do you have any questions ?"

All the builders sported a surprised expression.

"Y-you're a healer ?! Why didn't you say so, earlier ?"

Sakura blinked in confusion.

"Well, I'm no expert..."

**Bullshit, we're one of the best, shannaro !**

"... But I am a medic in training."

Furuichi let out a hysterical laugh.

"I can't believe it ! A doctor in the village !"

**Looks like he lost it, be a dear and give him a check-up.** deadpanned Inner Sakura.

She turned her confused eyes toward Tazuna, and she met his calculative gaze.

"Tazuna-san ?" questioned Sakura.

Tazuna sighed, before turning toward the builders.

"Go back to work and clean the place. Tsubaki, I know you're too stubborn to go home, you can stay and help but do not use your hand, only assist them if the guys need tools."

He turned toward Sakura, and she understood that he wanted her to walk with him. When they were far enough from the other builders, Tazuna sighed and started to talk.

"That skill of yours, it's useful. I didn't say anything before, I mean when you were helping that sensei of yours. Now, everyone is going to gossip and ask for your help." Tazuna's eyes darkened in self-disgust. "You know, nobody knows that I lied to you about the miss-ranked mission… That's why, after you all accepted to help, I didn't want to ask more."

"Tazuna-san…"

"No, Sakura-san. You and your team were already kind enough to help our village. And to be honest, I didn't believe you that day, in your Hokage's office when you asked me to believe in you and your team… Plus, during the road, I didn't see _your_ abilities, that sensei of yours who can control water and other elements, sure. I saw your teammates actions, how they nearly had wings instead of legs. But you were that weird pink-haired loony girl - it seemed as if you weren't quite there." said truthfully the old builder.

**Jeez, you don't need to bash us.**

"But, you know, thinking back on all those situation. You always tried to protect me, every time there were enemies you jumped in front of me. After coming in my home, you helped my daughter, heck, you even helped build the bridge while you watched over us. Thanks for the help, Sakura, you don't need to do more." finished Tazuna.

***sniff* Finally, someone sees our qualities, shannaro !**

"Tazuna-san." Sakura smiled softly. "Thank you, but I'm here to help, beside as a medic-nin I want to heal as many people as possible."

"Girl... There are so many things wrong in this country. You won't be able to do that alone."

"Yes. Maybe, I won't be able to heal everyone, however I will do my best. Don't worry Tazuna-san, beside it will help me train." she grinned widely.

**You always preferred healing over fighting…**

_I really love healing. Inner, there are so many people who destroy - even us. I want to heal as many as I can. Think about it, it will help us expand our chakra reserve._

**Fine ! But I still want to put more than ten percent of chakra in our seal each night. It's better to have _it _quickly.**

Sakura did agree with Inner, who knows how much chakra it will take to return to her universe. At least, she could help Wave and its people.

The next few days were spent in a makeshift clinic, she didn't have new and costly tools. But she had her creativity, and since she travelled through time, her creativity had gotten better. She tried to establish a logistic and routines for the villagers, this would enable them to better their lives in the long term. Inner continued to work on their seals as Sakura focused on her work.

Strangely enough, Zabuza hadn't attack.

_Have we changed something, this time ? Maybe this makeshift clinic changed something._

**I'm not sure. Yes, it has been a week already… but, wait.**

_What ?_

**You healed Kakashi !**

Sakura was confused for a few seconds, then she understood. In the original time-line, Kakashi had gotten up naturally, it took him at least two days… And Zabuza attacked a week later. However, with Sakura's healing, Kakashi was out only one half of a day.

**This means that we still have one or two days, if we remember things correctly… The thing is that I'm not one hundred percent sure that it took two days for Kakashi to heal…**

_… which means that we don't know when Zabuza will attack._

If there was one thing Sakura disliked, it was uncertainty, that's why the next days she was more stressed and worried. Kakashi had kindly asked her if she was alright and needed a clone with her.

**He's finally going to help us ?**

Sakura had nodded, and Kakashi had made a shadow clone to accompany her. Sadly, it meant that she couldn't work as expertly in the clinic.

_You know Inner, maybe if I had asked and told him honestly, sensei would have sent a clone with us from the start._

Hindsight was twenty-twenty, it was true that her Kakashi-sensei could read her like an open book. However, this one was a new teacher, who didn't understand the mind of young preteen girls, or women. Besides, since she came here, she was less social towards them.

_I should try to be more open. Even, Tazuna said that we're always on the moon… maybe that's why our team doesn't trust us. We didn't even listen to their introductions… And I didn't even help Naruto with the tree exercise ! Maybe... I changed too much, I'm avoiding Sasuke and only treating Naruto like a baby._

She would try to be better, decided Sakura.

The next day, Naruto was tired after successfully managing to climb on the trees. Kakashi had kindly decided to let him sleep, as he and Sasuke walked with Sakura and Tazuna toward the bridge.

The next thing she knew, many workers were dead on the ground, Zabuza was fighting Kakashi, and Sasuke was fighting Haku. Nothing had changed, she couldn't help him, she had to protect Tazuna ! If she left, one of them could kill him, and they would fail their mission.

Sakura clenched her fist. Wasn't this her moment ? Hadn't she time-traveled ? She was more skilled but as useless. She couldn't leave Tazuna, she couldn't use her strength ; the bridge would collapse.

She had senbons on her, but Haku was better at that than her. She bite her lips, nothing had changed. She wasn't the hero - oh, no, that was Naruto's role. And, thank god he appeared !

Naruto and Sasuke fought, side by side against Haku.

_I am so tired. Every time I want to better myself, I can't. My strength is useless, nobody wants to take the role of support and watch Tazuna. In the end, I'm like a wall. People can lean on me, but they'll never acknowledge me._

_I'm so lonely._

**You're not. **

**Have you forgotten ? I'm here and I understand Sakura.** calmly reassured Inner.** We'll be okay, don't worry about details. So what, if we're not changing anything ? In the end, our team won't die. Not here, just be yourself and stop trying to change and think about change. **Said Inner**.**

_Inner, we're doing nothing. Nothing against the enemy, and nothing to go back to Sarada !_

**Sakura. This mission is useless. Trust me, I have some plans to leave this place, you need to lay low and wait. **darkly said Inner.

Sakura wanted to question Inner, however she froze as she felt someone coming at high speed toward Tazuna. She used Kawarimi at the last moment to save the bridge builder and use her kunai. She scolded herself she could have been late, thankfully a nanosecond after she was in front of Tazuna, Kakashi managed to come between her and Zabuza's sword ; her sensei was now bleeding, but she could feel his strong aura.

_He protected us !_ /** He didn't believe in us.** thought Sakura and Inner

"Kakashi-sensei." breathed out Sakura. " you're hurt."

Thankfully for her, Zabuza loved to speak. She delicately put two genjutsu on her and Tazuna, she made it seemed as if she was Tazuna and Tazuna was her.

Sakura let out a fake whimper and hid behind Kakashi as if she was afraid. And although, Zabuza's goal was to kill Tazuna, he seemed to find Kakashi more interesting, this permitted Sakura to heal Kakashi. She concentrated her chakra with every bit of her precious control, and she started to heal the damage done on her sensei.

"Haku will finish those two." said Zabuza with a final laugh as he disappeared.

Sakura bite her lips and finished healing Kakashi.

"There's no way they'll lose !" said Sakura.

Kakashi turned around to look at Sakura, his sharingan had seen under her genjutsu.

"You're right Sakura." He gave her a warm smile." Thank you for healing me."

She blushed, she did like to be praised.

_Maybe. It's time to change things, to act._

**No. Don't do that.**

Sakura didn't listen to Inner.

"Sensei, can I go help them, please ?"

Kakashi carefully looked at her.

"Mah, you only had to ask Sakura-chan."

Kakashi made some handsigns.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu. Now, Tazuna, this clone will protect you." said Kakashi before going back to his fight against Zabuza.

Sakura smiled.

_He trusts us._

**I don't believe it ! He really accepted !**

"Tazuna-san." started Sakura, however he interrupted her.

"Go, I understand, your sensei's double is here." He gave her a firm nod.

It was with a smile that Sakura ran and jumped through the ice mirrors. She must have a good timing, because she arrived in front of Sasuke who had been protecting Naruto, and launched her senbons against Haku's.

She turned toward Sasuke , some of the senbons had hit him, and he had finally activated his sharingan.

"You protected me, why ?" said Naruto, his eyes on Sasuke.

Sasuke didn't answer, instead he turned toward Sakura.

"Sakura ! What are you doing here ?! You should be with Tazuna !" shouted Sasuke.

She pouted a bit.

"I'm also your teammate idiots, I won't abandon the both of you !"

Sasuke froze at that, his eyes widening and his shoulders relaxing. Even Naruto seemed surprised, he had noted Sakura's new kindness but he hadn't trusted her new behavior entirely, who would change like that ?

"By the way, congratulations ! You activated your sharingan, Sasuke-kun !" said proudly Sakura.

After learning that Sarada's sharingan had activated, Sasuke and her had organized a small outing between the three of them to congratulate their daughter - a tradition in the Uchiha clan, that Sasuke had never been able to do.

Sasuke had that cute flabbergasted expression that she rarely saw, before he winced and fell on one of his knees. Sakura quickly rushed toward the Uchiha.

Haku, who had let the children have their small moments, scoffed.

"You should have stayed out of this girl."

Sakura ignored him and spoke to Naruto.

"Naruto, are you able to fight against Haku ?"

She knew that with the Kyuubi's chakra he must feel less pain than Sasuke and that he was already healing, not that he knows that she knows.

"Of course Sakura-chan."

He gave her a grin before making the familiar hand signs for his shadow clones jutsu.

Five Naruto appeared and tried to fight against Haku. Sakura carefully touched Sasuke, and trying to show through her eyes that he can trust her.

"Wait Sasuke-kun."

She quickly took out the senbon placed in dangerous area, before healing him. There was no use to look at the superficial wounds now, she will have more time later. Naruto's clones disappeared and he fell near Sakura as she repeated the same process, it went quicker thanks to Kurama.

"Medical ninjutsu, I see." said Haku.

"What about it, 'ttebayo ?!" shouted loudly Naruto.

Haku returned inside his mirror, his voice echoing loudly and coming from everywhere.

"Medical ninjutsu is a rare branch of ninjutsu, only those who are advanced at chakra control can use it." explained Haku. "A medic-nin is an expert of the human body."

Oh shit, Sakura had forgotten that detail. Medical Ninjutsu was rare, but in some Lands, such as Mist or Rain Country, it was one of the highest sought skill - one of the main reason behind the abduction of Kakashi-sensei's teammate Rin. Haku sent many senbons at Sakura's back, interrupting her thoughts, however she avoided some and her teammates parried them with Kunais.

_Inner, we need a plan now !_

**We could have broken the mirrors, if we had stayed outside, shannaro ! Well, you can still do it, but it'll be difficult.**

_I won't be able to dodge all the senbons and break every mirrors by myself !_

**Or they could do _that_ ! We can teach _it _to Naruto !**

* * *

"Sakura. If you have a plan, it's the right moment." growled Sasuke.

He couldn't believe that his two teammates jumped inside the dangerous technique instead of helping from outside. How stupid can they get ?

"I have a plan, Naruto watch my hands. Sasuke-kun, can you distract Haku with Naruto's clones ?" calmly said Sakura.

He nodded and hid a scowl, how can she stay so calm. He doesn't why he noted her changes but he had to acknowledge this fact. Sakura was different, she was too calm, too collected, she was too perfect. If a manual called 'how to be the perfect Kunoichi - starter book' existed, this new Sakura would have been the perfect example.

Sasuke continued to attack the Hunter Nin's senbons. Thankfully for Sakura and him, Naruto easily picked up the jutsu that she was showing him. Sasuke doesn't understand why the dobe was the dead-last, he picked up jutsus quickly. Not that Sasuke will ever say that directly. The Academy was really useless, if they hadn't seen the dobe's potential. Maybe that's why _that man _graduated earlier than most of his peers.

"Okay, Naruto...s, this is a wind jutsu, do you guys remember those hand signs ?" asked Sakura. The Naruto clones all nodded. "Put as much chakra as you can in your hands and push them toward the mirrors ! Sasuke-kun, give us some fire !"

Naruto and Sasuke nodded, as Sakura took more weapons to parry those who were targeting Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto and his three clones quickly did as they were told, and Naruto's eyes widen when he felt wind on his hand, he pushed everything in front of him, and his clones did the same.

"Take that, dattebayo!"

"Katon : Housenka no jutsu." quickly said Sasuke with his hands moving faster and thanks to his sharinga, his timing was perfect.

The large wind blasts combined with all the fireballs made a magnificent fire, Sasuke's eye widened as the Ice melted - that hadn't happened earlier. After the mirrors melted, the burning enemy rolled on the ground, he was slightly burned but not that much.

"You…" murmured Haku.

Sasuke breathed hard, he was near chakra exhaustion and Naruto too. They both had been fighting for some times now, even if Sakura had healed them, the ninjutsu they used had costed a large amount of chakra.

That's why, they couldn't do anything but move in slow motions as the Hunter Nin sent a large quantity of iced senbons toward Sakura. They could only watch as their teammate tried to move around the pointy and deadly senbons, however Haku was stronger.

Sakura looked like a porcupine, as she fell down some of the senbons went deeper and she let out a small scream which pierced the souls of Naruto and Sasuke.

"I told you, you should have stayed away." coldly stated Haku.

"Sakura-chan !" screamed Naruto as he clumsily ran toward her.

"Why?! Why did you come ?" shouted Sasuke.

He tried his hardest to not fall, his body was trembling, his eyes were open wide, his sharingan will perfectly remember this moment. She was not like Naruto or him, she had a family. She was supposed to be a fangirl, she was supposed to be the support and stay behind, why would she come in the front-line ?

"Your teammate is right." continued Haku. "Your death is only your fault… You should have stayed out of this fight, just like your sensei told you earlier."

Sakura blinked, she may have a concussion, however, she decided to do the stupid thing, as if she was the main character.

If she died here, at least she will be cool.

"Because, those who break the rules are scum." she coughed some blood, as Naruto and Sasuke eyes widened again. "But those who abandon their friends are worse than scum, shannaro !"

She couldn't feel anything and her sight became a little blurry, however she saw Naruto's blue eyes change to red as orange chakra poured out of his body. Sasuke's eyes spun from red to black to red ?

And then, there was nothing.

* * *

**I'm putting our body on a small healing coma.**

_Inner, sorry, I may have overdid it._

**Yeah, you shouldn't have done that. If we die here, Sarada would have saved us for nothing, and we won't be able to join her again.**

_I know… But, I refuse to let Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi suffer because of me. We have power, we are stronger than in our original timeline. We don't need to be a burden… Sorry Inner._

Inner sighed, Sakura could see her smiling softly.

**I know. That's why you are outer… Your ability to be compassionate and help other people is a great skill… Maybe, I was too selfish… Sarada wouldn't want her mom to be a cold bitch I guess.**

_INNER, don't swear !_

**Please, no ! I refuse to be a miss goody-two-shoes, we're already miss know-it-all.**

Sakura and Inner laughed.

_Don't worry Inner, I'll be more badass, shannaro !_

**That's good Sakura.** Inner grinned widely. **The healing is done, just be careful with our skin-**

_-it's still tender, I know. Thanks Inner, for being by my side._

Sakura slowly opened her eyes, the grey sky was still here, but there was no more mist, the ground was cold. She got up slowly, her eyes were still a bit blurry, but she walked toward that orange blob - she had never been so happy to see Naruto's orange uniform.

Zabuza fainted and she could see Haku's dead body. Sadly, she won't be able to heal them, she didn't have that much chakra. She started to remember what would happen next, normally Inari should come with the villagers thanks to Naruto.

"Did we win ?" asked Sakura slowly.

She hadn't meant to startle them, but she did.

"SAKURA-CHAN'S GHOST !" screeched Naruto as he hid behind Sasuke.

Sakura giggled.

"I'm not a ghost Naruto !"

"How are you alive ?!" asked Sasuke. "I saw your chakra path slowing down ! You were dying."

"Mmh, weeellll, my body naturally put itself on a healing coma to heal the main damage." answered Sakura, why did she feel like she was lying.

**Technically it's ****true. You**** can't say that the split personality did the healing, they would send us to T&I, and I don't want to meet that Ibiki dude.**

"Mah~ Perhaps Sakura is a medical prodigy ?" proposed Kakashi.

The look Sasuke gave her was really complex.

"Oye, oye, oye !" interrupted a rough voice.

Right, how could they have forgotten the bandits ? Sakura put herself behind Kakashi and willing herself to try to heal him as efficiently as she could - at least he would be able to fight. Thankfully for the tired ninjas, the civilians quickly came to save them with Inari as their captain.

* * *

_**Chapter 10 : Uchiha honor their clan**_

* * *

The next few days had been more carefree. Sakura assessed her teammates' injuries and decided that they should relax for four days before going back to their home. Sasuke's body was still tender from the many senbon that pierced it. Naruto was healing quickly thanks to Kurama, however Sakura still did a check-up to be sure ; the Kyuubi wasn't Naruto's friend, not yet. Sakura's own body was healing nicely thanks to her chakra control and her knowledge of human body, she was able to heal quicker than Sasuke.

The one who had suffered the most was Kakashi-sensei. Sakura managed to heal his many wounds, however she couldn't do anything for his chakra exhaustion. Kakashi's body had suffered too much during his battle against Zabuza - both of the battles had required the use of the sharingan and the time-lapse between both battles had been short.

Sakura glared harshly.

Kakashi patted her head to calm her down, as if she was an angry puppy.

"Sensei ! You have to relax a few days !" shouted Sakura before pouting.

Sasuke rolled his eyes from his chair, Naruto was ignoring them and was happily eating the nice rice cooked by Tsunami-san.

"Sakura-chan, let sensei help with the bridge at least."

Sakura scowled and glanced with guilt at Tazuna. He had lost many men because of Tazuna and the last fight. Naruto had kindly proposed Team 7's help. Sakura was happy to be useful, but she hadn't taken into account the stubborn mind of her sensei. Kakashi-sensei wanted to participate with the building - no way in hell was she letting the chakra exhausted man doing that. She may have let that go in her original time-line, but now she had those knowledges.

"Please sensei, just relax for at least one full day." insisted Sakura. She used her puppy eyes no jutsu.

Kakashi sighed.

"Maa, just one day."

Sakura jumped with joy.

"Does it mean that Kakashi-sensei's going to train us dattebayo ?!" asked Naruto with rice around his lips.

Sasuke hned just after, his black eyes on their sensei with one purpose 'training'.

Sakura crossed her arms.

"No, we're not training ! We're taking a break." said Sakura.

Kakashi sweat dropped.

"B-but Sakura-chan, training is fun, dattebayo !" insisted Naruto.

Sakura felt Sasuke's glare.

"Maa, did you have an idea Sakura-chan ?" asked kindly Kakashi.

_Help me Inner._ asked Sakura.

**Er, I have no idea actually. There's no funny activity to do in wave, girl.**

Sakura pouted and glared at the table.

"Fine, we can train." said softly Sakura with a blush.

Naruto jumped in happiness and Sasuke smirked.

They went to the beach and started water-walking. She surprised her team again with her chakra control. Sakura tried not to blush at Kakashi-sensei's surprised expression. Her teammates' expressions were more complexes.

"I guess, you really are a prodigy in chakra control." said Kakashi.

She could see the worry in his eye. However, what was the most painful to see was Sasuke's eyes, they darkened with self-hatred.

"Woaw, that's so cool Sakura-chan !" said Naruto in a loud voice with a big grin.

A big fat lying grin.

Sakura wanted to scream in frustration, was it her fault ? She can't act like she doesn't know how to waterwalk, it was difficult for her to do so when she had trained her chakra control in her pink room, in her bathroom. Her body easily adapted what she was supposed to do on an instinctual level when it comes to chakra input. She felt Inner's anger inside her, Sakura walked back toward her sensei.

She tried to open her mouth, but she had nothing to say. Kakashi-sensei took pity on her.

"You can go relax Sakura-chan, I will take care of Sasuke and Naruto."

She nodded and walked toward her makeshift clinic, at least she will be useful.

* * *

Sakura finished healing her last patient and gave him a small tired smile. The young child blushed and thanked her in a loud voice, before jumping down the chair and running behind his mother.

"Thank you Sakura-sama." said the mother with wispy dark hair.

"It was no problem. Please, call me Sakura." said the pink-haired Kunoichi.

The women bowed and walked away with her dark-haired child. Sakura watched with envy the loving mother and her child ; she missed home.

"Sakura-sama, are you alright ?" asked one of her student, a woman near adulthood.

"Yes, Fumiko-san." lied Sakura with a smile. "And, please just call me Sakura-san."

The woman put her hands on her hips and pouted.

"Sakura-sama, you're a bad liar. Can't I help you ?"

**Jeeze, you can't even lie to civilians now ! **grunted Inner.

Sakura bit her bottom lip.

"I-it's just that my team is angry with me... And I wanted us to spend some time together with the boys, but now everything is awkward."

The brunette blinked.

**You know, without the full context, I don't think she understood. **wisely stated Inner.

Sakura's shoulder dropped, and she sighed heavily.

"Sorry Fumiko-san. I guess, I'll just go back."

She bowed and turned around, but the brunet caught her arm.

"Ah, wait Sakura-sama !"

Sakura turned around and looked up toward her student. The brunette wiggled and laughed in embarrassment.

"Ah sorry, Sakura-sama. It's just that I want to help you... Because, you also helped us." She blushed and scratched her head. "I don't really understand, but boys always like food, maybe you can cook for them... Since you stopped Gato, we managed to have some fresh shipment this morning. There was so much food ! Ah, sorry, I guess I tend to ramble." She coughed. "You can go see old Amuro, and maybe buy some food for your, er, boys ?" proposed the brunette.

Sakura blinked.

**Why didn't you think of that ?**

"Thank you Fumiko !" she smiled brightly. "That's a great idea !"

Sakura bowed and started to run. Then she stopped and turned one last time.

"And please stop calling me Sakura-sama."

She winked and rushed with ninja speed to buy nice ingredients.

Thankfully for her, Amuro-san had rice, tuna, nori, and cherry tomatoes ! She paid for her goods with a bright smile, and rushed back to Tsunami's place. The kind mother let Sakura use her kitchen and even prepared a flask of green tea for Sakura and her team. She thanked the kind woman, and put all the onigiri in a basket.

"Sakura-san, take this." said the smiling woman as she pushed a blue blanket in Sakura's arms.

"Thank you Tsunami-san." said Sakura with a big smile.

She rushed toward the beach and toward the team. She stopped a few meters away from the sandy beach and watched the scene in front of her. Kakashi-sensei was sitting on a rock, reading his familiar orange book. Naruto and Sasuke had stripped down to their boxer as they tried to rush on the waves. They managed to run a few seconds, before falling. At least, they managed to stay on the water if they needn't move.

She walked with hesitant steps toward her team. Her cheeks were flushed a bit after all the running she did today, but she tried to stay steady and continue her walk. Naruto was the first to see her and brightly waved at her, his blue eyes were happy to see her and they were without jealousy. It made her relax, and she walked quicker toward her team.

"Yo." greeted sensei.

"Sakura-chan !" shouted Naruto as he ran toward her.

Sasuke frowned but followed the blond.

"Aah, I made some onigiri. Let's take a break ?" proposed Sakura, her voice hesitant after seeing Sasuke's frowning face.

Kakashi-sensei closed his book as he got up. He patted her head with his familiar one-eye smile.

"Maa, what a great idea Sakura-chan." said Kakashi-sensei.

"Yay ! Let's eat, dattebayo ! D'you have ramen, Sakura-chan ?" asked Naruto as he turned around quickly around her - like a puppy.

"No, they don't sell ramen Naruto, not yet at least." said Sakura.

She took the blue blanket from the basket.

"So... How is it going ?" asked Sakura.

"Great ! We can stay on the wave, 'tteba ! And walk on the water if there's no water." said Naruto.

Her team helped to put the blanket on the ground, the wind wasn't helping to do it quicker.

"Hn." Grunted Sasuke as he glared the wavy sea.

Naruto rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to scold the Uchiha, but Sakura spoke.

"Aah." She sat down and put the basket full of onigiri, the flask of tea and four apples - a gift hidden by Tsunami - on the blanket. "Yes, that's the difference with walking on trees and on water. There are many things that can perturb its element, so the chakra output vary depending on where you walk. It will be easier at home, because Konoha doesn't have seas or ocean. Rivers will be easier because the current will nearly be the same, depending on where you are. Wave aren't predictable."

The rest of Team 7 sat down.

"Hn." grunted Sasuke.

"Well, yeah, it's better to learn it now. I heard that Suna nin got it easier than us, because of the sand, they try to the same exercise early one. I guess that's why they have one of the best chakra control..." continued Sakura, thinking about their puppetry.

She blinked and looked at her team. Naruto was giving her and Sasuke weird glances.

"Ah, sorry for the wait, you can eat Naruto." said the pink-haired Kunoichi.

Naruto opened his mouth to say something, but Kakashi-sensei coughed. Her blond teammate closed his mouth, and instead reached for an onigiri. Sakura waited until everyone took one. Sasuke was glancing at it without eating, waiting for someone else to eat first.

**Hey ! How dare they judge our cooking without tasting ! **shouted Inner with her arms crossed.

Naruto was the first to gulp one down. Without chewing.

"It's weird but good, 'ttebayo !" said Naruto as he reached for another one.

"At least chew, before saying that." said Sakura with a heavy sigh.

Sakura shyly turned her eyes on young Sasuke. He was hesitant to eat it after Naruto's comment. Great.

"Mmh, I like it." said sensei.

The three of them turned their head toward Kakashi. On his hand was an apple core.

"No way !" said Naruto and Sakura.

The three of them glanced at the basket. Half of the onigiri had been eaten.

"Sensei !" scolded Sakura. "You shouldn't eat so quickly it's bad for your health!"

Kakashi gave her a peace sign with his fingers, managing to frustrate her more. She nearly yelled at him, however her eyes caught Sasuke-kun biting on the onigiri. Sakura blinked, her eyebrows furrowed a bit.

_Did he do that to encourage Sasuke to taste her onigiri ?_

Sakura knows that her Sasuke loved those simple onigiri with tuna and tomatoes. However, she still enjoyed seeing him test that recipe for the first time. Sasuke-kun took a large a bit of the onigiri. She watched a small sparkle in his eyes as he felt the cherry tomato, he chewed and swallowed the onigiri. She watched as his pink tongue licked his lips for the tomato juice.

**Pervert. **muttered Inner, her nose bleeding.

Sakura flushed a bright red, and she quickly put a full onigiri in her mouth.

_Oh my god, can't you not do that ?!_

"Sakura-chan, are you alright ? You're as red as Himawa, dat-urgh!"

The blushing kunoichi took an onigiri and forced it in Naruto's mouth.

"Just eat, shannaro ! And it's Hinata !"

Kakashi giggled as he turned a page from Icha Icha, Sasuke looked confused but rolled his eyes at his weird team.

A teary red-faced Sakura was praying to higher beings for deliverance, as Naruto choked and her sensei giggled.

_LET ME GO HOME, SHANNARO !_

* * *

Team 7 prayed on last time in front of Zabuza and Haku's graves, the sunset reflecting on the wave village was beautiful, painting it in shades of red. Sakura thought about the bond between those two, it was sad to see them die. If only she had done more, they may have survived this battle. She was sure that if it had been Naruto who had come back, he would have been able to do something - to change. Sakura always fight against every hardship on her path, but she wasn't Naruto. The blond had a way to do things - to bend the world to his will.

Sakura kept her eyes close and prayed for the souls of Haku and Zabuza - giving one last apology for her inaction. Although, they were truly dead, Team seven will always remember this fight and them. In her future, Sakura never forgot this fight and this time she truly understood Haku's feelings toward Zabuza. Their bond was similar to the one she had with Sarada.

Team 7 had matured and Sakura was no exception to that statement. It was humbling to know that even as an adult, she still had so much to learn. She smiled softly as Naruto spoke about finding his own nindo. He had a way to comfort her, to give them - mostly her, hope. She took both of her teammates hands in hers, suddenly feeling small and lost. They weren't _her _team, but they were still Sasuke-kun and Naruto. Just taking their hands, feeling their touch, their warmth, it made her feel steady.

The boys didn't understand this new her, they may never acknowledge her. However, at this moment - in front of those graves in Waves, with the salty air and humid climate - Sakura needed them. She will be there for them until she had to go, she will stop ignoring them and she will be a better teammate. Until she had to go.

The morning after, team 7 were on the new bridge, Naruto and Inari were trying not to cry. Sakura let out a tiny giggle behind her hand, and even Sasuke smirked.

They turned around and walked proudly toward their home, on the newly bridge named 'The Great Naruto Bridge'.

"Sensei ! Wait, please !"

Team 7 stopped and turned toward a guy and two women running toward them. Kakashi watched as the civilians out of breath, with red cheeks, approached them. Thankfully, they were only a few meters away from the entrance of wave, so they could help them.

"What is it ?" asked Kakashi.

The man scratched his head.

"Ah sorry sir, we wanted to speak to Sakura-sensei ?"

Sakura choked on thin air.

"SENSEI?!" shouted Naruto.

"Y-you d-don't need to call me that, shannaro !" said Sakura with a blush.

"No way! You already refused to let us call you Sakura-sama. You have to let us call you sensei, Sakura-sensei." said Ayumi, her light brown eyes giving her the puppy eyes.

_THIS IS EMBARRASSING !_

"Mah, and why are you going around calling my student that ?" asked Kakashi, his one-eye smile giving nothing away.

**Trouble, we're in trouble.**

Sasuke raised one eyebrow, and even Naruto looked curiously at the three grown adult gushing over Sakura.

"She's an angel!"

"A true prodigy!"

"I have never seen such kindness!"

"She has the most precious hands."

"She's so pretty, her smile gave me so much joy."

Sakura felt her face burn from shyness and embrassement, she instinctively hid herself behind a surprised looking Sasuke.

"Is she now ?" commented sensei, his eye suddenly on a familiar orange book. "Did you need something from our pink-haired angel ?" asked Kakashi in a teasing tone.

Sakura flushed more, looking like a nice lobster with pink hair.

"Hai ! Tazuna-san named the bridge after your student Naruto." said Fumiko-san, a young woman with long dark brown hair.

"So, we wanted Sakura-sensei to name the clinic !" continued Ayumi.

"A clinic ?" questioned Sasuke.

"Yes, she kindly saved my husband's arm and gave many medical check-up around the village." explained Fumiko.

Sakura continued to stay behind Sasuke, she doesn't know what to say in front of so much praise. Naruto and Sasuke hadn't known about her... side-project. Sakura could feel Kakashi-sensei's amusement ; the man knew that she made a clinic even if doesn't know _how much _she taught them in such a short time. Sakura started to stress, will he scold her for giving those informations ? Technically all her knowledge belonged to Konoha (as she was their Kunoichi), Sakura shouldn't have done what she did without the permission of the Hokage. She hadn't even asked Kakashi-sensei !

"Not only that, but she gave us all new knowledge about herbs, anatomy and healing. She even gave us a way to be organized ! No one has ever been that kind to us." continued old man Bumi. "we know that Sakura-sensei is a modest person, so we wanted her to name the clinic before going !"

Sakura looked at Kakashi, as she failed to keep the worry out of her green eyes.

"Sakura, you should name it. You'll explain everything on the road, of course."

Sakura sweat dropped.

_At least, I'm not in trouble. _Thought the Kunoichi, as her shoulders relaxed.

She had to find a name, but she's bad with names. Sasuke was the one who came up with Sarada's name. And she can't use her unborn baby's unique name.

"Do you want me to find a name Sakura-chan ?!" asked boisterously Naruto.

"Hn. She doesn't need a name after ramen, dobe."

"What d'you say, teme ?!"

"Calm down you two." sighed Kakashi.

"Tch."

"Miso is a good name, Sakura-chan !"

Sakura opened her mouth, as the three villagers and Naruto watched her expectantly.

"Mikoto." she blurted out.

**Are we seriously giving them the second name we thought for Sarada, before naming her Sarada. I thought our creativity had gotten better, why didn't you just say our family name, Haruno Clinic ? Doesn't that sound nice ?**

_Why didn't you propose that before ?!_

"It's a pretty name Sakura-sensei !"

"We can use the characters for cherry blossoms and harp !" exclaimed Ayumi.

"Oh, I didn't think of that." muttered Sakura.

"Oye Ayumi, did you hear sensei ? She doesn't want to use those characters !" said Fumiko.

"Ah, no, it's okay, it's your clinic now. Write it like you want, shannaro." said Sakura, her cheeks reddening again with embarrassment.

_Why can't the earth swallow me now ? _internally wailed Sakura.

"What was your idea Sakura-sensei ? Don't be shy !"

"W-well, I would w-write it with the character precious."

The three looked at Sakura with stars in their eyes.

"SENSEI ! WE WILL NEVER FORGET IT !" shouted Ayumi.

"Is it your mother's name ?" asked Bumi.

"Ah, no. Well, good luck, and work hard guys ! If you need something, just write to me. We have to go." said a pink-faced Sakura.

She bowed quickly, and walked out of here. Her team followed.

"Sakura-chan, I think that Miso is a better name than Mikoto, dattebayo !" said Naruto.

"SHUT UP DOBE." howled Sasuke.

"Mah, it is an interesting name Sakura. Will you perhaps give your daughter that name ?" teased Kakashi with a perverted giggle.

"Why would she, 'ttebayo?" asked Naruto.

"It's Sasuke's mother name." said Kakashi as he watched the flushed face of both the Uchiha and Sakura.

"EEHH ! Sakura-chan…" Naruto let out anime-tears.

Sakura sighed.

"I won't name my daughter Mikoto. She won't be named after someone or something common like cherry blossom." said Sakura with a scowl.

"EHH, but Sakura-chan has a pretty name !" said Naruto.

"Besides, you are the only Sakura who has pink hair, Sakura." said Kakashi as he patted her head.

"Oh yes, a splendid name for a shinobi." sarcastically muttered Sakura.

"Why d'you think it's bad, 'ttebayo?"

"Cherry blossom represent the transience of life." she continued for Naruto's sake. "Life and Death, but I guess mama and papa didn't know I'd want to be a shinobi."

The rest of the journey was silent after that, Sakura guessed that it was because she spoke of her parents, she tended to forget how her teammates had been - or were - sensible when it came to that topic.

Sure, in _her present_, Naruto knows that he's the son of the fourth and Uzumaki Kushina, and Sasuke had made peace with his family's death. Both of them had their family to take care of...

**Yeah, but you don't need to stop speaking of your parents just because it makes them sad, shannaro !**

_Inner. Please, stop._

**Fine ! At least, we changed something in this world.**

_Mikoto's clinic - named after the last Matriarch of the Uchiha Clan, the mother of Sasuke and Itachi Uchiha. In the end, Uchiha Mikoto had been a strong woman who couldn't do anything as her world ended - she had been unheard and endured as her own son massacred their clan - their family._

It wasn't a bad name.

The clinic was named after Sasuke's mother, a strong jounin of Konoha. A woman whose diary had been hidden in her home. She was a proud jounin of the Uchiha Clan, she had been the expert in the art of Genjutsu and combined it with her Tessenjutsu; something that stayed hidden and unacknowledged after the Uchiha Massacre.

Uchiha Mikoto was a dead woman who had helped Sakura when she raised her daughter. Uchiha Mikoto wrote a diary in Uzumaki code about her life as a kunoichi, as a clan matriarch and as a mother. This diary had helped Sakura understand how to behave as an Uchiha woman. Sasuke had never cared about that, but it was useful against Konoha's elders.

That diary had contained so much informations about Mikoto's life - the way she and every women of their clan had been raised, the many traditions of the Uchiha Ichizoku and more importantly how to raise a Uchiha baby. According to the first page on the diary, it was a birthday gift from Kushina to Mikoto, to let the Uchiha write everything that frustrated her or random thoughts, information. That way, even if Kushina wasn't there, Mikoto could still have somewhere to rant. That precious diary and their friendship felt familiar to Sakura - she understood those two women, she wouldn't know what to do if Ino was to die. If Sakura hadn't managed to crack down the code those secrets would have been buried forever.

_I didn't even manage to pass the diary down to Sarada... Hopefully, Sasuke will give it to her._

**We're not dead yet shannaro ! We'll go back, don't you dare lose hope !**

Sakura focused on the road, ignoring Sasuke's questioning glare on her back. Her hands tightened.

_You're right Inner. We'll go back, and I'll give it to her. We need to tell her more about our family's history, about the Clan and Mikoto Uchiha - her grandmother._

**That's the spirit, shannaro !**

Sakura smiled.

Everything wasn't perfect, she was still lost in time, this mission was useless. But she will be better, she will endure, she will show them all the determination of a Kunoichi.

* * *

**\- To be continued**

**AN : This arc was so long ! Ugh. As I was reading this, I had to put more elements. I want to point that ths story is supposed to be from Sakura's point of view (most of the time). What I couldn't show was that Naruto and Sasuke distrust Sakura in the beginning. The girl changed to quickly, and both of them know on an instinctual level that something is strange. Sasuke has already been betrayed by Itachi, and Naruto knows that either from the Kyuubi or from his mistreatment in Konoha. Sakura isn't perfect, she thought she was behaving better. But her team felt that she wasn't with them.**

**I tried to let her team like her, but each time I couldn't do that. That was so strange, hopefully everything will get better *smile awkwardly*.**

**If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask ;)**


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